FRAMERS 




f the 


CONSTITUTION 



National Archives and Recon 


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FRAMERS 
of the 

CONSTITUTION 






FRAM ERS 
of the 

CONSTITUTION 

i/ 

James H. Charleton 
Robert G* Ferris 
Mary C. Ryan 
Editors 



National Archives and Records Administration 
Washington, DC 




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PUBUSHED FOR THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION 
BY THE 

NATIONAL ARCHIVES TRUST FUND BOARD 
1986 

A revised and updated edition of Signers of 
the Constitution: Historic Places Commemo¬ 
rating the Signing of the Constitution , pub¬ 
lished in 1976 by the National Park Service as 
Volume XXIX in the series National Survey of 
Historic Sites and Buildings , Robert G. Ferris, 
series editor. The volume was based on 
studies prepared by Prof. Charles H. McCor¬ 
mick, Fairmont State College, W. Va. James H. 

Charleton was the co-editor, and Dorothy 
Chatfield Buffmire was the photographic 
editor. 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publlcation Data 

Framers of the Constitution. 

Originally published under title: Signers of the 
Constitution. Washington: U.S. Dept, of the Interior, 

National Park Service, 1976. 

Includes index. 

1. United States. Constitution—Signers—Biography. 

2. United States—Politics and government—1783-1789. 

3. Statesmen—United States—Biography. I. National 
Archives Trust Fund Board. II. United States. National 
Park Service. Signers of the Constitution. 

E302.5.F73 1986 973-3'13'0922 [B] 86-8413 

ISBN 0-911333-43-6 

Cover: Detail from Oil (1940) by Howard Chandler 
Christy. Courtesy Architect of the Capitol. 



CONTENTS 


Preface vii 


Part I 

Historical Background 1 

Introduction, 3 

Aims of the Founders, 4 

Shortcomings of the Confederation, 9 

The Mount Vernon and Annapolis Meetings, 19 

The Delegates, 22 

Convention Proceedings, 33 

The Opening Days, 35 The Virginia and New Jersey Plans, 38 
The Great Compromise, 44 Writing the First Draft, 50 
Debates and Revisions, 56 The Question of Presidential Election and 

Authority, 64 The Final Draft, 66 
The Approved Document, 76 
Ratification: Federalists vs. Antifederalists, 86 
The First Presidential Election, 99 
Amending the Constitution, 102 

The Bill of Rights, 103 Subsequent Amendments, 107 


Part II 

Biographical Sketches 117 

Political Experience, 119 
Occupations, 119 

Geographic and Educational Background, 120 
Longevity and Family Life, 121 
Post-Convention Careers, 122 


Abraham Baldwin— Georgia, 123 
Richard Bassett —Delaware , 124 
Gunning Bedford, Jr.— 

Delaware, 125 
John Blair— Virginia, 127 
William Blount— 

North Carolina, 128 
David Brearly —New Jersey ; 129 
Jacob Broom— Delaware, 131 
Pierce Butler— 

South Carolina, 132 
Daniel Carroll— Maryland, 133 
George Clymer — Pennsylvania, 134 
William Richardson Davie— 

North Carolina, 136 
Jonathan Dayton —New Jersey, 138 
John Dickinson — Delaware, 139 
Oliver Ellsworth— 

Connecticut, 142 


William Few— Georgia, 144 
Thomas Fitzsimons— 

Pennsylvania, 145 
Benjamin Franklin— 

Pennsylvania, 147 
Elbridge Gerry— 

Massachusetts, 149 
Nicholas Gilman— 

New Hampshire, 152 
Nathaniel Gorham— 

Massachusetts, 153 

Alexander Hamilton— New York, 154 
William C. Houston— 

New Jersey ; 157 

William Houstoun —Georgia, 158 
Jared Ingersoll— 

Pennsylvania, 159 
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer— 
Maryland, 160 


v 



William Samuel Johnson— 
Connecticut , 161 
Rufus King — Massachusetts, 163 
John Langdon— New Hampshire , 165 
John Lansing, Jr.— New York , 166 
William Livingston— 

Afew Jersey , 168 
James McClurg — Virginia , 170 
James McHenry— Maryland \ 171 
James Madison— Virginia, 172 
Alexander Martin— 

North Carolina, 175 
Luther Martin— Maryland, 177 
George Mason— Virginia, 179 
John Francis Mercer— 

Maryland \ 181 

Thomas Mifflin— Pennsylvania, 182 
Gouvemeur Morris— 

Pennsylvania, 183 
Robert Morris — Pennsylvania, 185 
William Paterson— New Jersey, 187 


William Leigh Pierce— 

Georgia, 189 
Charles Pinckney— 

South Carolina, 190 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney— 
South Carolina, 192 
Edmund Randolph — Virginia, 194 
George Read — Delaware, 196 
John Rutledge— 

South Carolina, 198 
Roger Sherman —Connecticut , 200 
Richard Dobbs Spaight, Sr.— 

North Carolina, 202 
Caleb Strong— Massachusetts, 203 
George Washington— Virginia, 204 
Hugh Williamson— 

North Carolina, 208 
James Wilson— Pennsylvania, 210 
George Wythe — Virginia, 213 
Robert Yates —New York, 215 


Appendix 

The Constitution and Its History, 217 

Text of the Constitution and Amendments, 219 
History of the Document, 235 

Further Research in the National Archives, 242 

Suggested Reading, 245 

Art and Picture Credits, 247 


Index, 251 


v l 



preface 


O f all the documents in the care of the National Archives, the most 
famous are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution 
of the United States. Ten years ago the Declaration was the focus of 
a grand nationwide celebration of two centuries of independence. Now we 
celebrate another bicentennial—the 200th anniversary of the framing of our 
Constitution. 

Today we take the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for granted, but this 
landmark anniversary reminds us that our Constitution has both withstood 
and adapted to many challenges through the years. It has endured while the 
constitutions of other nations have fallen. Though amended 26 times, the 
basic document stands as it did when the delegates approved it at the 
Federal Convention. Throughout the summer of 1787 these men debated 
and resolved critical questions and made decisions that would shape the 
nation’s future. The task the delegates set for themselves was not an easy 
one, and not all approved of the outcome. It is Fitting, 200 years later, to 
reexamine the men and proceedings that framed the Constitution of the 
United States. 

For the occasion, the National Archives and Records Administration has 
produced Framers of the Constitution. This book was first published by the 
National Park Service in 1976 under the title Signers of the Constitution. For 
this edition, the National Archives has added articles about the 16 delegates 
who did not sign the Constitution and has deleted the section on historic 
sites. With the exception of stylistic changes, the text prepared by the 
National Park Service has remained virtually the same. The great number of 
people who contributed to the original edition are again acknowledged, and 
special thanks to the Division of History at the National Park Service for their 
cooperation. At the National Archives, Mary C. Ryan was responsible for the 
revision. Shelby G. Bale, Ann Mohan, and Timothy Walch provided valuable 
advice and assistance, and Jan Danis edited for style. The book was designed 
by Wayne Pederson, and Richard Smith guided it through composition and 
printing. 

As caretaker for the original documents of the Constitution and the Bill of 
Rights, the National Archives can take a unique part in the anniversary 
celebration. Among its vast resources are records particularly pertinent to 
constitutional analysis. These are reviewed in the final section of this book, 
“Further Research in the National Archives.” Framers of the Constitution , it is 
hoped, will promote greater familiarity with one of our most treasured public 
documents and inspire readers to deeper study. 


v 1 1 




























































part one 


Framers of the Constitution: 
HISTORICAL 
BACKGROUND 







HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


F or generations the people of the United States have revered the 
Constitution—and rightly so. It has provided an enduring and 
evolving framework for 200 years of national development. In 
some respects, it reflects the time of its creation, for it incorporates 
basic American tenets of the 18th century. These include the theory 
of the state as a compact between the people and the government 
and the idea that fundamental laws should be written. The Constitu¬ 
tion also reaffirms the strong belief in the traditional rights of 
Englishmen to the protection of life, liberty, and property that 
Americans defended in their rebellion against Britain. 

Above all, the document expresses, both in its provisions and in 
the process by which they were formulated, the Founding Fathers’ 
abiding faith in man’s willingness to reason—his ability to surmount 
political differences by means of rational discussion and compromise. 
Men sometimes disagree over the meaning of specific provisions of 
the instrument, but within its broad outlines and mechanisms for 
compromise lie means to reconcile disagreements. The Constitution 
expresses the concerns of a past age, yet it is the embodiment of a 
spirit and a wisdom as modem as tomorrow. 

Introduction 

Laboring at Philadephia from late spring until early fall in 1787, the 
55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention created a new form of 
government for the United States. Few of them could likely have 
imagined how successful and enduring their efforts would be, for the 
flexible instrument they produced to replace the Articles of Con¬ 
federation has persevered through the centuries as the foundation of 
our nation—though it has been buffeted by a civil war, two world 
wars, domestic conflicts, and economic depressions. During these 
years, amendments to and judicial clarifications of the Constitution 
have adapted it to a continually changing national mode of life. And 
today it serves as a symbol of democracy to the world, whose history 
it has immeasurably influenced. 

The constitutional achievement is all the more remarkable when 
the vast social, economic, and political differences between the 
present age and the era of the framers are considered. While the 
country has evolved from a weak and basically agricultural collection 
of almost independent states into an industrial colossus that ranks 
high among the sovereign nations of the world, sweeping changes 
have occurred in American life, thought, and attitudes. 

Living as they did in another day and serving far more restricted 
constituencies than our governmental representatives today, most of 
the Founding Fathers entertained some views that differed from our 


3 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


modern concept of democracy. These views reflected those of the 
aristocracy, the ruling-elite group to which the majority of them 
belonged. As legislators, politicians, lawyers, merchants, businessmen, 
planters, and landed gentry, for the most part they were predominantly 
conservative men of property. 

Few of the Convention delegates would have acknowledged they 
were “democrats”; to most of them, “democracy” was virtually 
synonymous with “mob rule.” They favored “republicanism,” in 
which the aristocrats would be dominant. The framers were not truly 
seeking to establish a government under direct popular control. 

Yet, though in some ways the Constitution originally demonstrated 
the self-interest of its creators, contained certain antidemocratic con¬ 
cepts, and sanctioned slavery, practically all the men who wrote it 
believed in the precepts of representative government and felt the 
people were its ultimate custodians. Thus, the document’s underlying 
philosophy is essentially democratic. 

To most of the founders, the issue was not simply “democracy” 
versus “republicanism” but national union versus disintegration. As 
pragmatic politicians rather than political theorists, they did not seek 
so much to impose a fixed governmental philosophy as to find a way 
to reconcile conflicting political and economic theories and realities 
within a framework that would facilitate the orderly and stable growth 
of the nation and ensure its security. 

Aims of the Founders 

Historians have long debated the motives and aims of the founders. 
Some scholars contend they were often guided by selfish or even 
sinister interests, particularly in the economic realm; others maintain 
that most of them were basically altruistic; members of a third group 
take positions somewhere in between the two extremes. Such a wide 
spectrum of opinion is at least partially explained by the diversities 
in personalities, backgrounds, and goals of the framers; incomplete 
biographical data; inadequacies in primary historical sources; histori¬ 
cal semantic differences in the definition of the word “democ¬ 
racy”; the conflicting political and socioeconomic elements that went 
into the making of the Constitution; the pronounced differences 
between the modern and 18th-century milieus; and the biases of 
historians themselves. 

Actually, the motivations of the framers were as diverse and com¬ 
plex as those of humanity. If most of them were committed to the 
preservation or improvement of their own economic situation, they 
also sought to better that of all citizens. Some of the makers of the 
Constitution stood to gain financially from the fiscal stability the new 


4 



AIMS 


O F 


THE 


FOUNDERS 


government would provide, but others stood to lose. On key issues, 
individuals often voted against or compromised their personal inter¬ 
ests for what they believed to be the common good. 

The delegates were also obviously swayed by their own political 
views and factions, the attitudes of their constituents, and the situa¬ 
tions in their states. In a humanitarian vein, the Founding Fathers 



Americans have always revered the basic documents of the Republic. The Constitution and the 
Bill of Rights, as well as the Declaration of Independence, are displayed in the Exhibition Hall 
of the National Archives. 


5 


















HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


strove to foster the general welfare and prevent tyranny from any 
source. Psychological factors were also apparent. Frayed tempers, 
jealousies, animosities, ambitions, and friendships had a major im¬ 
pact. Many of the framers also recognized they could likely attain 
positions of power in the new government. Finally, intellectual factors 
guided these men. They employed many logical premises and tech¬ 
niques, utilized rational dialogue, and drew on the lessons of history 
and political theory. 

If the Founding Fathers had a contrary intent, they nevertheless 
devised an instrument that ultimately resulted in a democracy. As 
leaders of the day, they possessed the required education and politi¬ 
cal and economic experience to understand the needs of the nation 
and bring about the changes in government so necessary for its 
survival. Certainly it is unlikely that the framers would have been able 
or willing to transcend their background and experience and prepare 
a document surrendering the reins of power to and reflecting the 
needs and desires of another group. 

Legitimate channels were followed in convoking the convention, 
which the Continental Congress had authorized. The only state not 
in attendance, Rhode Island, had rejected the invitation to take part. 
All the other 12 legislatures elected delegates in the approved man¬ 
ner. Most of these bodies, though they were not representative of the 
entire populace because of various voting and apportionment restric¬ 
tions, were recently elected and broadly represented most areas and 
economic and social groups of the nation. Furthermore, the legisla¬ 
tures as a whole were more democratic than perhaps any other 
governmental assemblies in the world at the time. 

The men at Philadelphia feared any form of tyranny. During their 
careers, a number of them had espoused human rights, protected 
economic and religious minorities, and sponsored antislavery legis¬ 
lation. The delegates were not alienated from the masses, with whom 
they had shoulder to shoulder recently overthrown British rule 
and with whom they identified in many other ways. Americans in 
mind and spirit, they were guided by a strong sense of public service. 

Furthermore, the Founding Fathers based the proposed new 
government on popular, as well as state, sovereignty, though not all 
people were eligible to vote at the time. The Constitution left the 
determination of suffrage to the states, where this responsibility had 
been lodged. For federal officeholders, no property qualifications 
were imposed and religious tests were forbidden. Titles of nobility 
were also prohibited, on both the state and national level. And 
provisions for amendment of the instrument were far easier than in 
the Articles of Confederation. 


6 



AIMS 


O F 


THE 


FOUNDERS 


Then, too, the founders were aware they would submit their work 
to Congress for whatever action it cared to take and specified that 9 
of the 13 states would need to ratify the Constitution before it went 
into effect. Thus, opponents gained an opportunity to voice their 
objections. Had this group been better represented at the convention, 
perhaps the Constitution might not have been created. Some in¬ 
dividuals in this category had been elected as delegates but chose 
not to participate. Had they done so, because voting was by state and 
most delegations were small, they could have made a substantial 
mark on the proceedings. One such person, Patrick Henry, was a 
spokesman for a group that had slight voice at Philadelphia, the small 
farmers. 

Representation in a democracy is never perfect. At least one-third of 
the country’s population today does not vote. Even those people who 
do can never be precisely represented because of a host of social, 
geographic, and political factors and the existence of individual 
shades of sentiment on particular issues. 

How could the 53 delegates to the Constitutional Convention 
conceivably have spoken equitably for all the diverse elements of the 
nation? And, as a matter of fact, considering that the framers were 
apparently better educated, wealthier, and politically more ex¬ 
perienced and powerful than most of their fellow aristocrats, they 
probably even imperfectly represented their own class. Also, some of 
the rich delegates had come from poor or humble backgrounds and 
thus likely possessed some understanding of the needs and problems 
of this group. No blacks attended the convention, yet some delegates 
vehemently argued against slavery. 

The Founding Fathers were acutely aware that the fate of the nation 
would probably hinge on their success or failure at the convention. 
Heading a new and economically and militarily weak country that 
had few allies and was vulnerable to foreign intrigue and Indian 
attack, they were genuinely apprehensive about national security. 
Autonomous acts of some of the states in the field of foreign affairs 
threatened to involve the country in war. Further undermining inter¬ 
national prestige was the lack of economic stability. For all these 
reasons, the framers granted control over foreign relations to the 
federal government and even went so far as to risk creating a standing 
army—in a country where such an institution was bitterly resented 
because of the recent experience with the British. 

Critics of the founders have formulated numerous arguments. The 
principal ones, some of which reflect modem attitudes and retrospec¬ 
tive judgments, are as follows: personal economic interests clearly 
guided some of the delegates; the majority of them were well-to-do 


7 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


aristocrats; fear of social radicalism and “democracy” spurred con¬ 
stitutional revision, especially after Shays’ Rebellion; many of the 
framers felt a strong central government offered protection against 
majority rule; a large number doubted the stability and intelligence 
of the general populace; small farmers, workingmen, slaves, inden¬ 
tured servants, women, youth, and the poor were badly represented 
in Philadelphia or not at all; the Constitution did not outlaw slavery, 
reduce its effects, nor help blacks win the rights of citizenship; Rhode 
Island did not take part in the convention; New York and New 
Hampshire were not officially in attendance for extended periods; 
most creditors favored and most debtors opposed the Constitution; 
the bulk of the antinationalists who participated in the convention 
departed before it ended; and certain aspects of the Constitution are 
intentionally nondemocratic. 

It is also true that, though public opinion polls were not conducted 
in 1787, a substantial number of Americans would likely have pre¬ 
ferred continuance of the Confederation. The central government was 
only a distant- and faint presence in the lives of most common men, 
who were inclined to resist any changes that might jeopardize their 
newly won freedom and whose basic allegiance was to their state 
governments. Furthermore, most of this group opposed any system 
resembling the British that would enjoy taxing power and maintain 
a standing army. Sharing this attitude were the state and local 
governments, which were not anxious to relinquish any of their 
powers. 


WHATEVER their motivations, the Founding Fathers boldly and re¬ 
sourcefully created an instrument of government that fostered the 
growth of a democratic and prosperous nation. By so doing, they have 
earned the perpetual gratitude of the American people. 

Many of the men at Philadelphia had played a key role in the 
Revolution, and in their view they were completing it. Even though 
they supplanted the Articles of Confederation, which had been its 
product, they firmly adhered to the republican ideals that lay at its 
heart and have attracted the allegiance of Americans ever since. 

At the end of the grueling 4-month convention, perhaps none of 
the delegates was fully satisfied with their accomplishments. Yet 
posterity has learned, and continues to relearn, their true magnitude. 
Today the Constitution—an emblem of the viability of our Union and 
a beacon to all humanity—is enshrined at the National Archives 
Building in Washington, D.C. 


8 



SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CONFEDERATION 


Shortcomings of the Confederation 

The Constitutional Convention met in a climate of national crisis, 
triggered by a series of governmental and economic problems—though 
historians have debated whether or not they were critical enough to 
warrant a drastic reorganization of the government. An anxious mix¬ 
ture of hope and despair gripped the minds of many leaders. Blessed 
with a huge territory stretching all the way to the Mississippi, the 
United States contained a wealth of natural resources. Its 3 V 2 million 
inhabitants had demonstrated their industry and ingenuity. Only 4 
years before, in the Treaty of Paris ending the War for Independence, 
they had won their freedom from Great Britain. Even earlier, they 
had taken their place among the nations of the world. And in 1781 
a new government had been initiated under the Articles of Confedera¬ 
tion, a constitution drawn up in 1777. 

Yet, what if the experiment in self-government should fail? Such 
prominent men as George Washington, James Madison, and Alexan¬ 
der Hamilton feared it might. In many fields, the Confederation had 
proven to be ineffectual and its prestige had plummeted. The Con¬ 
tinental Congress was unable to cope with all the country’s problems. 

The Articles of Confederation were a “firm league of friendship” 
among 13 semi-independent states; it did not provide for a truly 
sovereign national government. The principal governmental body was 
a single-house Congress, in which each state held one vote. No 
independent executive, to carry out the laws, or autonomous court 
system, to administer the legal and judicial system or to adjudicate 
disputes between the federal government and the states, was 
provided. The approval of a minimum of seven states, who elected 
and paid their delegates, was required for any legislation; nine, to 
wage war or pass certain other measures; and all 13, to alter or amend 
the Articles themselves. The Continental Congress was empowered 
to declare and wage war, raise an army and navy, make treaties and 
alliances, appoint and receive ambassadors, decide interstate disputes, 
negotiate loans, emit bills of credit, coin money, regulate weights and 
measures, manage Indian affairs, and operate a system of interstate 
post offices. 

Severely inhibiting the effectiveness of Congress in carrying out its 
prerogatives were three major limitations. One was the lack of a 
most basic governmental power: the right to levy taxes, which would 
provide an independent source of revenue. Instead, Congress could 
only requisition money from the states and could not enforce pay¬ 
ment. Suffering from the economic depression and saddled with their 
own war debts, states furnished only a small part of the money sought. 


9 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


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Dissatisfaction with the Articles of Confederation, whose opening paragraphs are reproduced 
here, gave rise to the movement that led to the creation of the Constitution. 


The second serious congressional deficiency was absence of 
authority to regulate interstate and foreign commerce. The states 
negotiated separately with foreign powers on commercial matters to 
the detriment of the overall economy. And, when two states disagreed 

1 0 




SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CONFEDERATION 


about trade matters, they dealt directly with each other much like 
countries did. Fortunately, to facilitate the conduct of legal business, 
at least the states had agreed to the mutual recognition of official acts. 

Third, the Continental Congress could not properly exercise its 
treaty power because of the autonomy of the states. Their indepen¬ 
dent conduct of foreign relations and Indian policy not only ham¬ 
pered Congress in its dealings with other nations but also sometimes 
even jeopardized national security. 

The Continental Congress had led the nation through the War for 
Independence, and in the Ordinances of 1784 and 1785 had es¬ 
tablished a plan to advance westward expansion by the addition of 
new states to the Confederation. But in financial matters, foreign 
affairs, national defense, mediation of interstate disputes, and protect¬ 
ing American sovereignty in the West it was less successful. After the 
war, the ramifications of political, social, and economic readjustment 
caught up with it. People blamed it for failure to solve problems that 
would have tried stronger governments. The deficiencies of Congress 
were real, however. By 1787 even its defenders recognized that it had 
fallen upon evil times. 

Financially, the situation was chaotic. Congress could not pay its 
war debts, foreign or domestic, or meet current obligations. The 
private financial system of the country was feeble, and the nation 
lacked a stable and uniform currency. The central government was 
virtually powerless to correct the conditions. 

Because much of the debt—federal, state, and private—was owed to 
foreign lenders, the future of the United States in international 
commerce was precarious. A nation that does not pay its debts cannot 
command respect from other countries. Furthermore, prosperity 
depended on trade with Europe and the Caribbean colonies, but 
Congress could not conclude suitable commercial treaties. 

Another area where the Continental Congress had failed was 
foreign affairs. Other nations showed contempt for the United States. 
Many of them questioned the stability or even the continued exis¬ 
tence of the Confederation. One British official remarked that it 
would be better to make 13 separate treaties with the individual states 
than to deal with the Continental Congress. American diplomats, 
whose efforts were hamstrung by the lack of a central authority that 
could formulate a unified foreign policy, made slight impress in 
world capitals. The prevailing mercantile system also prevented the 
opening up of markets for American agricultural produce. 

Only a few European nations sent ministers to this country. In 1785 
Great Britain received Minister John Adams, but not until 7 years later 
did she reciprocate with an exchange of diplomats. She also refused 

1 1 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


to grant trade concessions needed by the United States if prewar 
outlets for American goods were to be restored. And she did not 
evacuate a string of military and fur trading posts along the Great 
Lakes as called for in the Paris treaty of 1783- As grounds for refusal 
to do so, she contended that the United States had already violated 
it by failing to pay British and Loyalist claims. Congress could not 
solve the problem, lacking as it did the military power to drive the 
British out of the old Northwest or authority to force the states to 
settle the claims. Another source of English resentment was debts 
owed by individual Americans to British creditors. 

France remained friendly, but trade with the United States was 
insignificant because the practical outlet for American raw materials 
was more industrialized Britain. Since the French foreign minister, 
the Comte de Vergennes, at the peace negotiations ending the War 
for Independence, had shown a willingness to sacrifice American 
claims to western territory to the interests of French diplomacy, 
relations between the two countries had cooled, though France 
remained the closest supporter of the United States. 



During the Confederation period, domestic and foreign commerce languished. Scene at 
Philadelphia near the Arch Street Ferry. 

1 2 







SHORTCOMINGS OF THE CONFEDERATION 


Relations with Spain had never been cordial. Resenting U.S. acquisi¬ 
tion of the vast Appalachian-Mississippi territory in 1783 and consider¬ 
ing it a threat to her colonial empire, she did not recognize U.S. 
claims to parts of present Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and she 
disputed the location of the boundary between Florida and the 
United States as defined by the Paris treaty. Spain also used her 
control of New Orleans and the mouth of the Mississippi to attempt 
to persuade American settlers in the West, who relied on the river to 
ship their produce to the East and Europe, to forswear the United 
States and join her. Seeking accommodation, Congress authorized 
John Jay to negotiate with the Spanish, but he met with little success. 

Meantime, the Barbary States of North Africa plundered and exacted 
tribute from U.S. ships in the Mediterranean, and the Continental 
Congress could do nothing about it. 

Vitally related to the debility in foreign affairs was the inadequacy 
of national defense. This was attributable to the Confederation’s 
reliance on state militias and its financial difficulties. At the very time 
that westerners were clamoring for protection from the Indians and 
action against the British in the Northwest, the U.S. Army was in a 
moribund state. In 1783, in response to frontiersmen’s pleas, the best 
Congress could do was call for an increase in the size of the army 
from 80 to 700 men. Before the adoption of the Constitution, even 
this modest goal was never reached, but enough state militiamen 
volunteered for U.S. Army service to erect and garrison a few forts in 
the Ohio country and provide token evidence of U.S. authority there. 
From 1784 until 1789, the army consisted only of these western 
garrisons, small detachments at West Point, N.Y., and the Springfield, 
Mass., and Pittsburgh supply depots. The “navy” of the War for 
Independence had disappeared. After the war, the few remaining 
ships were sold and the sailors discharged. 

In disputes among the states, Congress was no more successful. 
Powerless to enforce its decisions, it hesitated to make many. It could 
not regulate interstate commerce or, for example, prevent states from 
passing restrictive measures against imports from one another. When 
the “State of Franklin” (1784-88) claimed independence from North 
Carolina and a faction within the state sought annexation to Spain, 
Congress was unable to resolve the issue. And it could not settle the 
conflicting claims of New Hampshire and New York to the Vermont 
area, at a time when Ethan, Ira, and Levi Allen, leaders of the 
semi-independent state, were said to be discussing with the British 
its possible annexation to Canada. 

Crippled by its military and diplomatic shortcomings, the Continen¬ 
tal Congress was unable to stop Indian raids along the frontier. The 

1 3 



H I S T O R 


CAL 


BACKGROUND 


Spaniards held sway over the natives in the old Southwest, machinated 
along the border, and threatened to close the Mississippi River to 
American trade. The British intrigued in the old Northwest and 
dominated the Indians there. Ail these conditions irritated western 
settlers, landowners, and speculators and threatened to lead them 
into alliances with foreign powers that would offer protection and 
create a climate hospitable to settlement. In response to these 
provocations, Congress could do little to reassure westerners, whose 
secession seemed possible. As Washington wrote, the West was “on 
a pivot,” ready at the “touch of a feather” to turn to the nation that 
offered the most secure future. 

Complicating the problems of the Confederation while at the same 
time revealing its impotence was the deplorable state of the 
economy. It was rocked not only by a postwar depression but also 
by rampant inflation, heavy British imports, and the loss of markets 
in Britain and the British West Indies. A logical move to counter the 
unfavorable balance of trade would have been imposition of a tariff 
to restrict imports or force Britain to make concessions in the West 
Indies, but the Confederation lacked authority to enact or apply such 
a measure. British merchants easily circumvented trade barriers 
erected by individual states by shipping their goods in through 
others. Another adverse factor was the great popularity of British 
products among consumers. 

In the seaports of the East and on the farms of the South and West, 
export trade languished. In colonial times, certain products had 
enjoyed a guaranteed market under British mercantilism. Now, 
denied that favored status, or similar access to the trade of mercan- 
tilistic France and Spain, shippers and producers and all who 
depended on them felt the financial pinch. As a result, business 
failures and property foreclosures soared, and many people, par¬ 
ticularly farmers, fell deeply into debt and lost their lands and homes. 

The economic malaise affected most segments of society: mer¬ 
chants, shippers, planters, farmers, mechanics, artisans, and manufac¬ 
turers. The farmers, who like manufacturers suffered from low prices 
for their products and the loss of markets, were also saddled with 
crippling taxes and property payments and in some regions faced 
crop failures. The lack of a uniform national currency, a shortage of 
gold and silver, and the fluctuating value of currency from state to 
state hampered interstate trade. State paper, bills of exchange, and 
foreign coins circulated freely. Economic rivalries, as well as currency 
and boundary disputes, were rife among the states. 

The widespread indebtedness, coupled with the scarcity of hard 
money, generated pressures on state legislatures to pass laws 

1 4 



By the United States in 
Congrefs affembled, 


October 12, 1785. 


W HEREAS it is indifpenfibly necefiary, for the fupport of the federal 
government, that the Rates fhould iiipply their quotas of money, 
for the purpofes Rated in the eRimates of the fub filling requifitions of 
Congrefs. 

And whereas certificates for theintereR arifing on loan-office certificates, 
and other certificates of liquidated debts, previoufly to the laR day of De¬ 
cember 1782, from the deficiencies of fome of the Rates to comply with the 
requifition of the 4th September, 1782, and 27th and 28th of April, 1784, 
will, in purfuance of the requifition of the 27th of September, 1785, be 
iffued by the commiflioncrs of the continental loan-offices in fuch Rates. 

And whereas the extra certificates which the faid commiffioners may 
iflue for the payment of the faid interefi, fliould be called in or redeemed by 
the dcfictentRates in t*xler to compleat their refpedive quotas of the inter¬ 
efi of the domefiic debt, fpecified in the laid requifitions of the 4th Septem¬ 
ber, 1782, and 27th and 28th April, 1784. 


\ 


RESOLVED , 

That the feveral Rates be earnefily called on to compleat without 
delay the whole of their quotas of the requifitions lafi mentioned, and that 
fuch of the Rates as may be deficient in paying their refpedive quotas of 
the interefi of the domefiic debt purluant to the laid requifitions, be required 
to colled and pay into the public treafury the amount of fuch deficiencies, ci¬ 
ther in certificates to be ifiued by the commifiioners of the continental loan- 
offices, purluant to the requifition of the 27th September, 1785, for the 
payment of the faid interefi, orinfpecie, to be applied to the redemption 
of fuch certificates; provided that the fum fo to be paid into the trea¬ 
fury in interefi certificates as part of the requifition of the 27th and 28th 
April 1784, fliall not at any time exceed the proportion of facilities lobe 
paid into the treafury, agreeably to the requifition lafi mentioned. 



Under the Articles of Confederation, the central government had no independent income 
had difficulty collecting sufficient funds from the states. 



H 


S T O R 


CAL 


BACKGROUND 


favorable to debtors and to issue inflationary paper money, unbacked 
by gold or silver. This medium, which kept depreciating in value, 
made it easier for debtors to satisfy their creditors, often men of 
property who were outraged by the movement. But many debtors 
were too poor to pay in any kind of money. Soldiers returning from 
the war found their farms strapped with mortgages, which in some 
states were partly necessitated by heavy taxes. 

As a result, debtor political factions arose that advocated not only 
the printing of more paper money and other antideflationary 
monetary policies but also laws to prevent foreclosures. In some 
places, while Congress stood by helplessly, relations between 
creditors and debtors deteriorated almost to the point of civil war. In 
Rhode Island and elsewhere, paper money flowed with the speed of 
the presses. In other states, like Massachusetts, the creditor and hard 
money interests prevailed. 

It was in western Massachusetts that the debtor-creditor struggle 
peaked in 1786-87, and culminated in a resort to arms and 
bloodshed. The legislature, dominated by wealthy eastern creditors 
and commercial interests intent on paying off the governmental debt, 
levied land and poll taxes. These burdened small farmers, who were 
already deep in debt and suffering particularly from the drop in 
produce prices caused by the cessation of trade with the British West 
Indies. While the legislature ignored protests and petitions from the 
underrepresented agrarians for stay laws, the issuance of paper 
money, and constitutional changes, many honest men, their mortgages 
foreclosed and their property confiscated, went to prison. 

Abandoning the traditional deference to authority of their class and 
demanding their right to express themselves on governmental mat¬ 
ters, the farmers first harassed tax collectors, moneylenders, lawyers, 
courts, and officials who foreclosed mortgages. In September 1786 
Daniel Shays, a former captain in the War for Independence, and 
some 600 of his followers marched on Springfield and forced the 
commonwealth’s supreme court to disband. The following January, 
leading a force of more than 1,000 insurgents, be attacked the lightly 
guarded federal arsenal there. Militia defeated them, the revolt col¬ 
lapsed, and Shays fled to Vermont; later, the legislature lowered taxes. 
Although the uprising was quickly and rather easily quelled, it was 
only possible through the private subscriptions of various merchants. 
The response to pleas for help from Massachusetts by the Continental 
Congress, which lacked troops and money, was belated and ineffec¬ 
tual. 

Shays’ Rebellion, as well as similar disturbances elsewhere in New 
England and the possibilities of others in the country, raised the 

1 6 



Pennsylvania, ff. 

By the Prefident and the Supreme Ex 
ecutive Council of the Common¬ 
wealth of Penn/ylvania, 

A PRO C LA M A T10 N. 

W H E REAS the General Aftc’mbly of this Common* 
wealthy by a law entituied ‘An act for co-operating with 
“ the flute of Mailachufetts bay, agreeable to the articles of 
“ confederation, in the apprehending of the proclaimed rebels' 
“ DANIEL SHAYS, LUKE Da i\ ADAM WHEELER 
and ELI PARSONS,** have enadLd, “ that rewards ad- 
“ ditional to thofe offered a>. J promifed to be paid by the date 
“ of Malfachuferts Bay, for the apprehending the aforefaid 
“ rebels, be offered by this flute WE do hereby offer the 
following rewards to *ny perfon or ye«Tons who Ihuii, within 
tlie limits of this flate, apprehend the rebels aforefaid, and 
ecure them in the gaol of the city and counry^ of Philadelphia, 

- \iz For the apprehending of the faid Daniel Shays, and 
fecuring him as aforefaid, the re ward of One hundred and Fifty 
Pounds lawful money of the date of Maffuchufetts Bay, and 
One Hundred Pounds lawful money of this flate ; and for the 
apprehending the faid Luke Day, Adam Wheeler and Eli 
Parfons* and fecuring them as aforefaid, the reward (refpeo 
tively) of One Hundred Bounds lawful money of MaffachufettS 
Bay and Fifty Pounds lawful money of this ft ate : And all 
judges, jnftices, fheriffs and conftables are hereby flridily en¬ 
joined and required to make diligent feared and enquiry after, 
and to ufe their utmofl endeavours to apprehend and fccure the 
Lid Daniel Shays, Luke Day, Adam Wheeler and Eli Par- 
fons, their aiders, abettors and comforters, and every of them, 
fo that they may be dealt with according to law. 

GIVEN in Council, under the hand of the Prefident:, and 
the Seal of the State, at Philadelphia, this tenth 
day of March, in the year of our Lord one thoufard 
(even hundred and eightv-feven. 

BENJAMTN franklin. 

Attest 

JOHN ARMSTRONG, jun* Secretary. 


Shays’ Rebellion alarmed men of property and creditors across the land. This proclamation by 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania offered a reward for Daniel Shays and three other 
ringleaders. 







H I S T O R 


CAL 


BACKGROUND 


specter of anarchy to businessmen, gentlemen of property, and the 
ruling class from New Hampshire to Georgia. To them, the Shays 
episode seemed to herald a period of demagogic mob rule that 
would destroy property rights—and with them the nation’s future. This 
group feared that debt-ridden farmers in other states might take up 
arms, lamented congressional ineffectiveness in controlling the Shays 
outbreak, expressed shock at the violence, decried the attack on a 
federal arsenal and the intimidation of lawyers and courts, and 
resented agitation for the repudiation of debts and the issuance of 
paper money. 

Many individuals in this category, some of whom even felt that 
British spies and sympathizers had fomented the uprising, exploited 
the issue politically. Although the states were already selecting 
delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the rebellion helped 
catalyze the desire for drastic remedial action. This led to the creation 
of a more nationalistic government at Philadelphia than would 
probably otherwise have been possible. 

Many men of standing traced the rise of individuals like Shays to 
the apparent strength of “radical” elements within some of the states 
and the excessive power vested in the legislatures under the Con¬ 
federation. This situation directly resulted from the Revolutionary 
upsurge of the 1760s and 1770s. In rebelling against distant British 
rule, Americans had rejected the monarchy, scorned the arbitrary 
exercise of executive authority, and placed their faith in their legis¬ 
latures. All of them except those in Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
which merely modified their royal charters, had drawn up new 
written constitutions during the Revolution. Because the colonial 
assemblies had fought for the rights of Americans and the royal 
governors had been the principal exponents of British repression, 
most of these documents had granted extensive powers to the 
legislatures and few to the governors, who were reduced essentially 
to administrators. 

Although the legislatures had guided the states through the war, 
these bodies had too often looked to their own parochial interests 
instead of those of the whole country. By the 1780s, in some states 
neighborly cooperation had almost ceased to exist and had given way 
to jealousy, mistrust, and opportunism. 

Congressional effectiveness depended partly on national con¬ 
fidence, which by early 1787 had mostly evaporated. The people 
placed their faith in the state governments, which could levy taxes 
and duties, maintain militia, regulate commerce, and, when necessary, 
use force to maintain order. Members of the Continental Congress 
often did not even bother to attend its sessions. During one 4-month 

1 8 



MOUNT VERNON AND ANNAPOLIS MEETINGS 


period in 1783-84, a quorum of states could be mustered only three 
times; only with difficulty could a sufficient number be assembled to 
ratify the Treaty of Paris ending the War for Independence. As the 
prestige of Congress continued to dim, the quality of its personnel 
as a whole declined. Many of the best men stayed at home near their 
legislatures, where the real power lay. 

Despite the extent and seriousness of the problems, numerous 
attempts at overall revision or the correction of particular deficiencies 
in the Articles of Confederation had failed. Sometimes a majority of 
the states approved the changes, but the consent of the required 13 
could never be obtained. Thus, chances for constitutional revision 
within prescribed governmental channels were virtually nonexistent. 
By 1787, the contention of thinkers of the day who held that republics 
were ineffective in large countries seemed accurate. 

The Mount Vernon and Annapolis Meetings 

Against this background, was it any wonder that a movement 
originated to revise the Articles of Confederation? Many leaders 
believed that the country required a more truly national government 
to replace the existing loose compact of states. Although many of the 
prevalent difficulties would probably be encountered by any new 
nation while establishing its sovereignty and authority over its people, 
most of them were attributed to weaknesses in the Confederation. 



1 9 


Maryland State House, where the Annapolis Convention met in September 1786. 






HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


DESPITE all the weaknesses of the Confederation that might have 
sparked reform, it was the congressional lack of power to regulate 
commerce that brought about the Mount Vernon Conference and the 
Annapolis Convention, two interstate meetings of limited scope. 
These led to the Constitutional Convention. 

The Mount Vernon Conference, held in March 1785, began at 
Alexandria, Va., and concluded at George Washington’s nearby estate. 
Representatives of the legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, who 
convened primarily for the purpose of discussing mutual navigation 
problems along the lower Potomac, also achieved agreement on 
maritime use of the Chesapeake Bay, fishing and harbor rights, 
criminal jurisdiction, import duties, currency control, and other mat¬ 
ters. Although James Madison did not attend, he had been the prime 
mover behind the conference. Washington, whose canal-oriented 
Patowmack Company sought to develop east-west trade and who was 
concerned about foreign intrigue among western settlers, sym¬ 
pathized with the goals of the meeting even if he was not instrumen¬ 
tal in convening it. 

Spurred by the success of this interstate diplomacy, in January 1786 
the Virginia legislature, acting on a resolution possibly drafted by 
Madison, invited all the states to another conference. This one was 
to deal with domestic and foreign trade and make recommendations 
for their improvement to the states and the Continental Congress. 

The Annapolis Convention met in September 1786 at the Maryland 
State House. In attendance were 12 representatives of 5 states 
(Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia), includ¬ 
ing Chairman John Dickinson, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Clark, 
William C. Houston, George Read, Richard Bassett, Edmund J. Ran¬ 
dolph, and James Madison. Delegates from Massachusetts, New 
Hampshire, Rhode Island, and North Carolina either did not par¬ 
ticipate or arrived at the convention too late to take part; Mary¬ 
land, Connecticut, South Carolina, and Georgia did not make any 
appointments. 

Because of the sparse representation, the commissioners took no 
action on the announced topic. Hamilton and Madison, however, 
convinced them that they should exceed their limited mandate and 
recommend a national meeting to consider the adequacy of the 
Articles of Confederation. The carefully couched report, drafted by 
Hamilton, proposed that all the states and the Continental Congress 
endorse another conference to be convened at Philadelphia on the 
second Monday of May in 1787. Its purpose, in essence, would be 
the framing of measures to strengthen the Articles. 


2 0 






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First page of the report of the Annapolis Convention, forerunner of the Constitutional 
Convention. 


2 1 










HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


The Delegates 

When the delegates rode away from Annapolis, they could not be 
sure that the proposed meeting would even take place. But the 
unfavorable national economic situation, among other factors, and 
possibly the outbreak of debtor disturbances in Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire, prompted the Continental Congress to act after 
seven states (Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New 
Hampshire, Delaware, and Georgia) had already authorized delega¬ 
tions and named most of their representatives. On February 21, 1787, 
that body passed a resolution calling for the new convention: 

Whereas there is provision in the Articles of Confederation & perpetual 
Union for making alterations therein by the Assent of a Congress of the 
United States and of the legislatures of the several States; And whereas 
experience hath evinced that there are defects in the present Confederation, 
as a mean to remedy which several of the States and particularly the State 
of New York by express instructions to their delegates in Congress have 
suggested a convention for the purposes expressed in the following 
resolution and such Convention appearing to be the most probable mean 
of establishing in these states a firm national government 

Resolved that in the Opinion of Congress it is expedient that on the 
second Monday in May next a Convention of delegates who shall have been 
appointed by the several States be held at Philadelphia for the sole and 
express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation and reporting to 
Congress and the several legislatures such alterations and provisions therein 
as shall when agreed to in Congress and confirmed by the States render 
the federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of Government & the 
preservation of the Union 

ALL 13 states appointed delegates except Rhode Island, an insufficient 
number of whose leaders sympathized with the nationalistic goals of 
the convention. A total of more than 70 individuals were originally 
nominated, but a substantial number of them did not accept the 
assignment or did not attend. Their reasons included opposition to 
constitutional revision, poor health, family illness, and the press of 
personal or professional business. 

Some of the men in this category were prominent, including 
Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Nelson, Jr., and Patrick Henry of Virginia; 
Abraham Clark of New Jersey; George Walton of Georgia; Henry 
Laurens of South Carolina; and Maryland’s Thomas Stone and Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton. All these individuals except Henry and Laurens 
had signed the Declaration of Independence. Part of the group who 
rejected nomination or did not take part in the convention later 
favored the new frame of government and supported ratification of 
the Constitution; others opposed it. 

2 2 



the delegates 


Various national leaders and eminently qualified people were not 
even elected. Among these were such men as Thomas Jefferson and 
John Adams, who were on diplomatic duty in Europe; Samuel Adams, 
whose political fortunes were temporarily on the decline; and John 
Hancock, who was busy as governor of Massachusetts. 

New York named the smallest delegation, three; Pennsylvania the 
largest, eight. Attendance ranged from New York, which for much of 
the time had only one unofficial representative (Hamilton) on hand, 
and New Hampshire, with two late arrivals, to Pennsylvania, whose 
eight delegates all participated throughout most of the convention. 
The states usually paid all or part of their representatives’ expenses 
and apparently in some instances compensated them. 

Each state specified what part of its delegation needed to be 
present to act for it and cast its vote. The credentials of all the 
delegates except those from thinly populated Delaware authorized 
them to approve such changes in the Articles of Confederation as 
they deemed desirable. Delaware directed its emmissaries not to 
agree to any changes in the basis of congressional representation 
from the one state-one vote system in the Continental Congress, 
though during the convention the Delawareans disregarded these 
instructions when the large and small states reached a compromise 
on this matter. 



Among the prominent men who were not elected as delegates to the Constitutional Convention 
were Thomas Jefferson (left) and John Adams (right), who were on diplomatic service in 
Europe. 

2 3 






Four national leaders who did not attend the Constitutional Convention. Upper left, Richard 
Henry Lee; upper right, Patrick Henry; lower left, John Jay; lower right, Samuel Chase. The latter 
were not elected, and the first two declined to serve. 


2 4 






THE DELEGATES 


MANY of the delegates arrived at Philadelphia bone-weary and dusty 
or mud-splattered from their tedious journeys. The unpaved and 
rutted roads, dangerous bridges, treacherous fords, and unreliable 
ferries made cross-country travel hazardous, undependable, and un¬ 
pleasant even in the best of weather. Stagelines, which frequently 
involved some boat travel, were the usual mode of transportation. 
Three lines connected Philadelphia with New York City, three with 
Baltimore, and one with Annapolis. Some of the framers, however, 
made the trip mainly by ship, and Washington drove up from Mount 
Vernon in his carriage. Delegates coming from New York City, 
including the sizable contingent from the Continental Congress, were 
among the most fortunate. That city, under favorable circumstances, 
was less than a clay’s journey away by stage or stage-boat combination. 
But travelers from Virginia and the southern part of New England 
required 4 days on the road and those from more distant points even 
longer. 

Philadelphia, founded in 1682 by William Penn and the metropolis 
of the nation, had a population of more than 40,000. Cosmopolitan 
and sophisticated, it was a center of commerce, science, medicine, 
and culture. Fashionable gentlemen in powdered wigs and velvet and 
satin clothes and their elegant ladies ambled along the brick 
sidewalks in the prosperous downtown area among mechanics in 
leather aprons and buckskin breeches, visiting farmers in homespun 
and moccasins, black slaves and freedmen, foreign and domestic 
sailors, and an occasional Indian. The principal thoroughfares, often 
cleaned by prisoners from the city jail, were paved and lighted at 
night. More than 500 iron-handled pumps throughout the area 
provided the citizens with water. 

By 1787 expansion had resulted in urban sprawl, and the initial 
grid pattern of broad streets and spacious lots had in some sections 
given way to narrow alleys and crowded houses. Sanitation problems 
plagued poor residents. Insects bred in the piles of trash, livery 
stables, and backyard privies. The din was distracting. The air rever¬ 
berated with the sounds of construction, calls from street hawkers, 
church bells, and the “thundering of Coaches, Chariots, Chaises, 
Waggons, Drays, and the whole Fraternity of Noise.” 

Many Philadelphians sought refuge from the summer heat on their 
balconies and piazzas under awnings or in their shaded gardens. In 
the evenings, some people braved the mosquitoes to cool off on 
benches flanking the front doors. But by 11 o’clock most of them 
had retired, leaving the streets to members of the watch, who hourly 
until dawn called out the time and weather. 


2 5 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Blinds protected the convention members, sitting in the Pennsyl¬ 
vania State House (present Independence Hall), from the worst of 
the afternoon sun, but they were frequently uncomfortable in their 
close-fitting clothes and wigs, especially the New Englanders in their 
heavy woolen suits. When the windows were shut to reduce the 
noise, the air became oppressive; when they were opened, flies 
buzzed in. 

Most of the delegates took accommodations near the State House. 
The majority lodged and boarded in hostelries or roominghouses, 
but Washington stayed at Robert Morris’ elegant townhouse and 
Elbridge Gerry rented a house for himself and his family. Most of the 
framers, however, were separated from their loved ones. To reduce 
living costs and perhaps to quell any loneliness, some of them stayed 
two to a room. The Indian Queen Tavern, the city’s most comfortable 
inn where many stayed, became an informal convention center and 
the management even provided them with a private common hall. 
Another popular spot was the City Tavern, furnished in the London 
mode. In addition to these inns, well-patronized dining and drinking 
spots were the George and the Black Horse. 















Philadelphia, the site of the convention, was the national metropolis. Pictured here is a scene 
about a decade later, along Arch Street, showing the Second Presbyterian Church. 


During their free time, when they were not discussing convention 
proceedings, visiting with one another, or writing letters home, the 
delegates found many diversions, particularly during the two adjourn¬ 
ments. Social affairs were numerous, though some of the less sophis¬ 
ticated individuals disliked the excess of “etiquette and nonsense so 
fashionable.” Some men were invited to dinner by Benjamin Franklin, 
Robert Morris, and other members of the Pennsylvania delegation, 
who all resided in the city or its environs. 

Various framers visited John Bartram’s botanical gardens across the 
Schuylkill River, heard a July 4 oration at a Lutheran church, dined at 
the splendid fish-eating clubs, and probably patronized Peale’s 
Museum. A common pastime was likely reading, for which the Library 
Company collection in Carpenters’ Hall, only a block from the State 
House, was conveniently located. The shops and twice-weekly farm 
markets offered an enticing assortment of food and imported goods. 
Some delegates went fishing. From time to time, others, particularly 
those from nearby states, took trips home to see their families or 

2 7 





HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


conduct personal and professional business. And, especially on 
weekends or during adjournments, a few went sightseeing to nearby 
areas. 

Washington, the supreme national hero, was welcomed to town 
on May 13 by pealing bells, an artillery salute, and an escort of the 
City Light Horse Troop. Quickly swept up in a whirl of social affairs 
and ceremonies, he received the City Light Horse and infantry 
militiamen; attended a Roman Catholic mass; dined with the Society 
of the Cincinnati, the Sons of St. Patrick, and at the homes of various 
prominent people; visited several country estates, including those of 
Robert Morris and Thomas Mifflin; drank tea at different houses most 
every day; rode horses for exercise; sat for a portrait by Charles 
Willson Peale; and attended plays, concerts, and poetry readings. He 
also paid a nostalgic visit to Valley Forge and made an excursion to 
the Trenton Iron Works. 

But, despite all the social hubbub, for most of the delegates it was 
a busy, lonely summer taken up with work, working dinners, and not 
much real leisure. 

THE number of delegates who served at Philadelphia totaled 33, 
though they were not all on hand for the entire convention. Some 
arrived late, left early, or were temporarily absent for various lengths 
of time. The 55 men, 39 of whom subscribed to the Constitution, 
were as follows (nonsubscribers indicated by asterisks): 

Baldwin, Abraham (Ga.) 

Bassett (Basset), Richard (Del.) 

Bedford, Gunning, Jr. (Del.) 

Blair, John (Va.) 

Blount, William (N.C.) 

Brearly (Brearley), David (N.J.) 

Broom, Jacob (Del.) 

Butler, Pierce (S.C.) 

Carroll, Daniel (Md.) 

Clymer, George (Pa.) 

Davie, William R. (N.C.)* 

Dayton, Jonathan (N.J.) 

Dickinson, John (Del.) 

Ellsworth (Elsworth), Oliver (Conn.)* 

Few, William (Ga.) 

Fitzsimons (FitzSimons; Fitzsimmons), 

Thomas (Pa.) 

Franklin, Benjamin (Pa.) 

Gerry, Elbridge (Mass.)* 

Gilman, Nicholas (N.H.) 

2 8 


Gorham, Nathaniel (Mass.) 
Hamilton, Alexander (N.Y.) 
Houston, William C. (N.J.)* 
Houstoun, William (Ga.)* 

Ingersoll, Jared (Pa.) 

Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas (Md.) 
Johnson, William S. (Conn.) 

King, Rufus (Mass.) 

Langdon, John (N.H.) 

Lansing, John, Jr. (N.Y.)* 

Livingston, William (N.J.) 

McClurg, James (Va.)* 

McHenry, James (Md.) 

Madison, James (Va.) 

Martin, Alexander (N.C.)* 

Martin, Luther (Md.)* 

Mason, George (Va.)* 

Mercer, John F. (Md.)* 

Mifflin, Thomas (Pa.) 

Morris, Gouvemeur (Pa.) 



T 


H 


E 


D 


E 


L 


E 


G 


A 


T 


E 


S 


Morris, Robert (Pa.) 

Paterson (Patterson), William (N.J.) 
Pierce, William L (Ga.)* 

Pinckney, Charles (S.C.) 

Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth (S.C.) 
Randolph, Edmund J. (Va.)* 

Read, George (Del.) 

Rutledge, John (S.C.) 


Sherman, Roger (Conn.) 
Spaight, Richard D., Sr. (N.C.) 
Strong, Caleb (Mass.)* 
Washington, George (Va.) 
Williamson, Hugh (N.C.) 
Wilson, James (Pa.) 

Wythe, George (Va.)* 

Yates, Robert (N.Y.)* 


Attending all or practically every session were 29 men: Bassett, 
Bedford, Blair, Brearly, Broom, Butler, Clymer, Fitzsimons, Franklin, 
Gerry, Gorham, Ingersoll, Jenifer, Johnson, King, Madison, Mason, 
Mifflin, Robert Morris, Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 
Randolph, Read, Rutledge, Sherman, Spaight, Washington, Williamson, 
and Wilson. Ten individuals missed only a few weeks: Baldwin, 
Davie, Dayton, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Livingston, Alexander Martin, 
Luther Martin, Gouvemeur Morris, and Strong. Twelve persons were 
away for long periods: Blount, Carroll, Few, Gilman, Hamilton, Hous- 
toun, Langdon, Lansing, McClurg, McHenry, Paterson, and Yates. Four 
men attended for extremely short stretches: Houston, Mercer, Pierce, 
and Wythe. Reasons for absences included personal and family ill¬ 
ness, service in Congress, other professional or personal business, 
late appointment, early departure, boredom or a feeling of useless¬ 
ness, faith in the views and actions of fellow state delegates, and 
opposition to the prevalent nationalism. 

Although the group hardly matched Jefferson’s characterization as 
an “assembly of demigods,” it was a distinguished one. Statesmen, 
legislators, patriots, and leaders in commerce and agriculture for the 
most part, the men were as a whole highly talented and well 
educated. They also enjoyed extensive political and worldly ex¬ 
perience. 

Nearly all of the body had much at stake in the experiment in 
government that was called the United States, and they were deter¬ 
mined to see that experiment succeed. Four-fifths, or 44, of the 55 
individuals were serving in or had been members of the Continental 
Congress. Most of them had heartily backed the rebellion against 
Great Britain, and about half had fought in the Continental Army or 
state militia. Eight (Clymer, Franklin, Gerry, Robert Morris, Read, 
Sherman, Wilson, and Wythe) had signed the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence. All but a few had participated in or were at the time actively 
involved in colonial, state, and local governments—from minor county 
offices to governorships. Many had helped draft the constitutions of 
their states or had codified their laws. And a large number were to 


2 9 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


assume important posts, including the presidency (Washington and 
Madison), under the government they were to establish. 

A considerable number of the Founding Fathers were friends or 
acquaintances. Many had attended college together or been political 
or business colleagues. Most of the men were wealthy or well-to-do 
and lived under comfortable circumstances. Land, slaves, and com¬ 
merce were the principal sources of wealth. Almost a third of the 
group sprang from aristocratic families; practically all the rest came 
from families that were respectable and substantial. Not many more 
than a handful of individuals were of humble origins or of modest 
means. 

By profession, the law predominated. This was the pursuit of more 
than half the delegates, though a substantial number were busi¬ 
nessmen, merchants, planters, and large-scale farmers. In numer¬ 
ous cases, because of multiple occupations, overlapping occurred. 
Only two owned small farms. At least 12 men received their major 
incomes in the form of salaries from public office. Three were 
physicians, and the same number had retired from active economic 
pursuits. 

As a group, the framers were relatively youthful. The average age 
was 43- The youngest was Jonathan Dayton at 26. The eldest was 
81-year-old Franklin, who was so infirm that prisoners from the city 
jail usually had to carry him from his nearby home to the sessions 
in his sedan chair, which had been made specially for him after his 
return from France. 

About half the delegates had attended college, principally at Wil¬ 
liam and Mary, Harvard, Yale, College of New Jersey (present Prince¬ 
ton), King’s College (Columbia), and the College of Philadelphia 
(University of Pennsylvania). Several men had studied abroad and 
held or were to hold graduate and honorary degrees. A considerable 
number were privately educated or self-taught. 

The best known and respected were Washington of Virginia and 
Franklin of Pennsylvania. Their presence not only cooled passions 
but also lent dignity and authority to the proceedings and helped to 
assure their success. Madison of Virginia, a political genius, was an 
excellent debater and a keen student and practitioner of government. 
The first to arrive in Philadelphia, on May 3, he had carefully prepared 
himself by studying various forms of governments since ancient times 
and had formed a realistic conception of what a government should 
be. He was to play a predominant role at the convention. 

Other outstanding delegates included Randolph, Mason, and Wythe 
of Virginia; Gerry, King, and Gorham of Massachusetts; Sherman, 
Ellsworth, and Johnson of Connecticut; Hamilton of New York; 

3 0 



T 


H E 


DELEGATES 


Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, Mifflin, and Wilson of Pennsyl¬ 
vania; Dickinson of Delaware; Luther Martin of Maryland; Williamson 
of North Carolina; Livingston of New Jersey; and Charles Pinckney, 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Rutledge of South Carolina. 



City Tavern, where many of the delegates to the convention stayed, as it appeared around 1800. 

3 1 





























HISTORICAL 


B A 


CKGROUND 


Despite wide differences in temperament and political views, most 
of the framers were nationalists and believed that the Articles or 
Confederation needed substantive revision. Based on their experience 
with the inadequacies of the Confederation, practically all of them 
were united in the belief that the United States should be a singly 
unified nation, not an agglomeration of semi-independent states, and 
they transferred that faith to the Constitution. 


A correspondent obferves, that as the time approach¬ 
es for opening the hufinefs of the foe jeral convention, 
it is natural that every lover of his country Ihould txv 
pcricnce forne anxiety for the fate of an expedient f<> 
neceflarv, yet fo precarious. Upon the event of this 
great council, indeed, depends every thing that can be 
efiential to the dignity and (lability of the national cha¬ 
racter, The Veteran who has toiled in the field, the 
Statesman who has laboured in the cabinet, and every 
man who participates in the biddings of American In¬ 
dependence, mult feel that all the glory of the pad, and 
a!! the fortune of the future, are involved in this mo¬ 
mentous undertaking. The imperfections and debility 
ef the league, framed during a druggie for liberty and 
political evidence, were obfeured and concealed by the 
ardor of enterprise, and the proximity of danger. The 
feelings of the people were then more obligatory than 
the pofitive injunction of law ; and men, in the purftdt 
of an important object, required no confideration to 
difeharge their duty, hut their interefts and their pafii- 
ons Though the fcederal compaft, therefore, thus 
fortified, might be adequate to the ac ant ft lien % yet from 
the nature and difpofition of human affairs, it becomes 
inadequate to the prefervatlon of fovereigr* power. Un* 
kfs fome rule, is preferibed, fome motive introduced* 
which in a ftate of tranquility will enforce a regard tu* 
the general interefl, eqmd to the voluntary enthufiafm 
arifing from common fufferings and apprebenfions, wcr 
have only exchanged tyranny for anarchy—— we liaver 


This extract from a Philadelphia newspaper on the eve of the convention reveals how 
concerned some Americans were about its success. 

3 2 



CONVENT 


O N 


PROCEEDINGS 


Probably few of the group would really have considered a monar¬ 
chy or the abolition of the states, nor would more than two or three 
have considered the elimination of the central government and the 
division of the country into three or four confederacies. All the men 
were fully aware that their work was unprecedented and complex. 
Major common concerns were the preservation and prosperity of the 
Union, establishment of a suitable national defense, fear of tyranny, 
protection of property rights, and the prevention of domestic discord. 

Sometimes torn between the wishes of their constituents or states 
and their vision of the new nation, concerned for posterity yet 
respectful of the past, and united in purpose, the delegates embarked 
upon their task. 


Convention Proceedings 

During a 4-month period between May 25 and September 17, 1787, 
the “Federal” or “Grand” Convention, as the newspapers called it, 
created a new frame of government for the United States. On the 
scheduled opening date, May 14, the conferees who were on hand 



Robert Morris’ townhouse on High (present Market) Street, where Washington stayed during 
the convention and later as President. In 1787 he had originally planned to reside at Mrs. 
House’s rooming place, but Morris persuaded him to change his mind. 

3 3 





















HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


convened in the Pennsylvania State House’s assembly, or east, 
room—the same one where the Declaration of Independence had 
been approved and signed. But, because of bad weather, travel 
difficulties, and other reasons, only about 10 were present, apparently 
just from Pennsylvania and Virginia—but in sufficient numbers for state 
quorums. 

During the 11-day interim while awaiting a quorum of states and 
while other delegates kept reporting, many of the attendees held 
private discussions and exchanged opinions. But the Virginia delega¬ 
tion, led by Gov. Edmund J. Randolph and spurred by Madison, met 
daily to prepare for the convention. Its early arrival and thorough 
planning were to place it in a position of leadership. 

On May 25 the daily official meetings of the main body yielded 
the necessary quorum of seven states. On that date, 29 delegates were 
present in sufficient numbers from Delaware, New Jersey, New York, 
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia, plus one 
each from Massachusetts and Georgia. 

Not until July 23, however, when the two New Hampshire emis¬ 
saries arrived, were all 12 states that were to attend represented. 

—£*■ ■*£- 

PO R TS MOUTH, (New Hampfoire) May 19. 

We are am honied to inform our readers that the probability 
of the honorable deiega es from this (late not attending the 
convention at Philadelphia, caufes great uneafinefs in the 
minds of the true whign of New Hampshire, and will occafioa 
a confiderable infpedtton into the Rate ot our finances. 

Near one quarter part of the towns in this (late hare refolv- 
ed nor to fend any rcpreferitatives to the enfuing General 
Court, A correfpoudent fuppofes this circumilanct will great¬ 
ly accelerate public builneis. 

B O S T O N, May 19. 

The legiflature of Connedifut having lail week appointed 
its deputies, twelve ftates will be repreiented in the grand 
federal Convention, now fitting in Philadelphia.-—Rhode If. 
land 1* the delinquent (late -but, obferves a correfpondent, 
this is a c’rcurnftance far more joyous than grievous ; for her 

Because New Hampshire did not provide funds, its two delegates, John Langdon and Nicholas 
Gilman, did not arrive at the convention until July 23, 1787, and had to pay their own way. 
Rhode Island was the only state not represented, as this extract from a Philadelphia newspaper 
also indicates. 

3 4 



the open 


N G DAYS 


Claiming financial distress but possibly also evidencing inertia or 
suspicion of the goals of the convention, New Hampshire had not 
provided funds for its delegates, one of whom paid for both of them. 
Meanwhile, though, on July 10, two of the three New York represen¬ 
tatives had departed. This left only Alexander Hamilton from that state 
in an unofficial capacity and 10 states officially taking part until July 
23, after which 11 did so for the duration of the convention. 

Between May 23 and September 17, except for Saturday May 26 
and during the two adjournments (July 3-4 and July 26-August 6), 
sessions were held 6 days a week. The hours usually ranged between 
10 or 11 a.m. and 3 or 4 p.m., though sometimes they were shorter 
or longer. But the expenditure of time in sitting on committees, 
drafting papers and speeches, and otherwise preparing for the ses¬ 
sions made for long days for most of the group. 

In April, before the convention, the Continental Congress had 
extended the franking privilege to the delegates. How other costs 
were to be defrayed was not clear at the time of the meeting; many 
of the representatives thought they would need to do so out of their 
own pockets. Later in 1787, however, after the convention, the 
Continental Congress was to pay the salaries of the secretary, 
doorkeeper, messenger, and the clerks who transcribed and engrossed 
the Constitution, as well as stationery charges; the Second U.S. 
Congress was to pay the printing bill in 1793. 

The Opening Days 

Most of the first week’s business was devoted to organization. On the 
first day, Friday, in a fateful move, Washington was unanimously 
chosen as presiding officer. Although he was not to say much during 
the deliberations, he guided them smoothly and his presence helped 
make the work of the convention acceptable to the nation. 

Maj. William Jackson was designated as secretary. Unfortunately, he 
performed his recordkeeping duties indifferently. Had it not been for 
a few individuals who kept journals or notes—especially Madison, but 
also Yates, Lansing, King, McHenry, Paterson, Hamilton, and Pierce—not 
much would be known about the details of creation of the Constitu¬ 
tion. 

Credentials were accepted and read. Most of the rules that were 
adopted for the conduct of business followed those of the Continen¬ 
tal Congress. As in that body, voting was to be recorded in geographi¬ 
cal order north to south from New Hampshire to Georgia and be by 
state rather than individual delegate. Decisions of the majority could 
be reconsidered during the life of the convention and were to be 
revocable. 


3 5 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Finally, it was quickly decided to keep the deliberations secret. 
Nothing “spoken in the House,” was to be “printed, or otherwise 
published or communicated without leave.” Doormen stood at the 
entrances of the meeting room throughout the sessions, and the 
public remained essentially uninformed about the deliberations. As 
a result, only gradually over the course of many years did the basic 
story of the formulation of the Constitution emerge. 

Many of the delegates believed that only an atmosphere free of 
publicity and external pressures would ensure the free and frank 
exchange of ideas and allow the participants to speak their hearts 
with candor and sincerity. At the same time, because they could 
change their minds and bargain with their colleagues, compromise 
would be facilitated. Temporary rashnesses would not appear on the 
public record, and outsiders would be prevented from becoming 
aroused over any disputes. 

Yet, whatever the justifications, the secrecy did demonstrate a 
certain mistrust of the people; some of the delegates would never 
have dared deliver their convention speeches, which contradicted 
things they said in public, to their constituents. Opponents of the 
secrecy rule claimed it would arouse public suspicion of the motives 
of the conferees. 



3 6 


William Jackson, secretary of the convention. 



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First page of Secretary Jackson’s journal, May 25, 1787, date of the First full-quorum meeting of 
the Constitutional Convention. 












HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


The Virginia and New Jersey Plans 

The first substantive business was conducted May 29-30. On those 
days, evincing the planning and initiative of the Virginia delegation, 
Randolph presented a speech outlining the weaknesses of the Con¬ 
federation and offering a series of 13 resolutions to remedy them. 
These came to be known collectively as the Virginia Plan. It resulted 
in the first major conflict and compromise: the large versus small 
state issue. Despite its prominence at the time, this controversy was 
to have almost no bearing on the evolution of the constitutional 
system; rather, the great disputes were to be intersectional in nature. 

Because Virginia had been one of the leaders in calling the 
convention and was the most populous and in many ways the most 
powerful state, she played a major role in the proceedings. The 
Virginia Plan was the product of several minds, but preeminently that 
of Madison. By conceiving a relatively simple and clear plan and 
arranging for its early introduction, he seized a commanding position 
for the nationalists, who were never to relinquish it. 

Far more than an attempt to revise the Articles of Confederation, 
the plan represented nothing less than a call for a new constitution. 
As such, it exceeded the desires of a number of the delegates, many 
of whom also felt it violated congressional and constituent instruc¬ 
tions. Considering the extent of this opposition, surprisingly the plan 
was not seriously challenged as a whole until June 15. Nevertheless, 
it was a key point of debate throughout the proceedings and became 
the partial basis of the Constitution. 

Reducing the states to a clearly subordinate position, the Virginia 
Plan called for a strong central government, which would, unlike that 
of the Confederation, consist of three separate branches: executive, 
legislative, and judicial. The number of persons who would constitute 
the executive office was not specified. The legislature was to elect 
the executive, which was eligible for only one term. The single-house 
Continental Congress would be replaced by a two-house, or 
bicameral, legislature. The plan suggested that the people elect the 
lower house; from lists of persons nominated by the state legislatures, 
the lower house would elect the upper. In both cases, representation 
would be based upon “quotas of contributions” [state monetary 
contributions] or the “number of free inhabitants,” rather than upon 
state parity as under the Articles of Confederation, where Virginia held 
no more voting power than tiny Delaware. 

A second sharp departure from the Articles was the vesting of broad 
authority in the proposed national legislature. It was authorized to 
pass laws on all matters “to which the separate States are incom¬ 
petent, or in which the harmony of the United States may be 

3 8 



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June 


page of the Virginia Plan as amended by the committee of the whole and recorded on 
13, 1787. 

3 9 











HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


interrupted by the exercise of individual [State] Legislation.” The 
legislature was also empowered to negate state laws that in its 
opinion contravened the constitution and to force obedience. 

A “council of revision,” made up of the executive and a number 
of judges, could veto legislative acts. The plan also proposed that the 
legislature would choose and pay a separate judiciary. Because the 
legislature would elect both the executive and the judges, the three 
branches lacked the independence ultimately granted them in the 
Constitution. 

The remainder of the proposals were less startling. New states were 
to be admitted with less than a unanimous vote of the legislature, 
and each state and territory was to have a republican form of 
government, as were the old ones. The Continental Congress was to 
continue until the new government took over. State officers were to 
take an oath to support the new constitution. Finally, the Continental 
Congress and then state conventions, “expressly chosen by the 
people,” were to approve the new frame of government. 

The plan was not a proposal for a “federal” or “confederated” 
union as those words were understood in 1787. Instead, it called for 
a consolidated “national” government. This was bound to provoke 
controversy. The delegates resolved to refer the plan and one offered 
by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina for a “federal government” to 
a committee of the whole, where less stringent rules would stimulate 
informal debate and allow the formulation of special proposals for 
consideration of the convention. Daily, Washington called the meet¬ 
ing to order and surrendered the chair to Nathaniel Gorham of 
Massachusetts. Although the former took no part in the debates, he 
voted on all motions made by the committee of the whole; at other 
times when the Virginia vote was divided, he cast his vote, usually 
in accordance with Madison’s views. 

Ignoring the Pinckney proposal for the most part, the committee 
would debate the Virginia Plan from May 30 through June 13- 

ON May 30, by a vote of six (Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, 
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia) to one (Connecticut), 
with New York divided, the delegates resolved to proceed toward the 
establishment of a “national Government. . . consisting of a supreme 
Legislative, Executive, & Judiciary.” Randolph had suggested this 
wording as a substitute for the first resolution of the Virginia Plan, 
which had stressed amendment of the Articles of Confederation. This 
action in effect represented a commitment almost from the beginning 
to scrap the Articles and focus attention on a totally new frame and 
form of government. 

4 0 



VIRGINIA AND NEW JERSEY PLANS 


Over the next 2 weeks, the committee of the whole debated the 
implications of this resolution and the various provisions of the 
Virginia Plan. Many disagreements arose over various points, but the 
deepest and most persistent was over the matter of representation in 
the proposed legislature. For obvious reasons, most of the delegates 
of states with large populations or wealth or those such as Georgia 
with sizable areas that might be expected to be populous in the 
future favored representation based upon those factors. 

But many ardent nationalists from the small states—Paterson of New 
Jersey and Sherman of Connecticut, for example—resented the loss of 
equal power they enjoyed under the Articles of Confederation and 
feared they would be dominated or even swallowed up by the large 
states. Some of these men felt their credentials did not authorize 
them to support such a proposal or that their states would not 
approve such an action. This group insisted that representation in at 
least one house should be by state as it was in the Continental 
Congress. At first, it appeared that the large states would prevail, but 
by mid-June it had become clear that the small ones would not budge 
and that some form of compromise was imperative. 

On Wednesday, June 13, the initial debate ended, and the com¬ 
mittee reported out 19 resolutions. The Virginia Plan had undergone 
some modifications. Madison’s treasured “council of revision” had 
been thrown out. So had the authority of the national government to 
use force against intractable states. A 3-year term was specified for 
the lower house and a 7-year term for the upper. The minimum age 
for both was 30. The central government, instead of the states, was 
to pay members of the two houses—an important step in making 
Congress responsible to the national rather than to the state govern¬ 
ments. The executive, now defined as one person, was to be elected 
by the national legislature for a single 7-year term. To balance the 
executive’s dependence upon the legislature, he was given the power 
to veto legislative acts unless overridden by two-thirds of both houses. 
Finally, the upper house would choose a “supreme Tribunal” of 
judges. Most other provisions were virtually identical with the original 
Virginia Plan. 

A key element of that plan retained in the committee report was 
the principle of variable representation based upon the relative 
population and wealth of the states. Determination of the ratios 
involved was to be a major point in the continuing debate. 

Despite serious disagreements remaining among the delegates, it 
became clear that most of them sought a national government and 
that an increasing number favored granting some form of sovereignty 
to the people at large as well as the states. This contradicted classical 

4 1 



H I S T O R 


CAL 


BACKGROUND 


political theory, which held that sovereignty could have only a single 
source and the body politic a single head. 

IN mid-June, however, the sovereignty issue still needed to be settled. 
Several features of the revised Virginia Plan continued to alienate 
small-state delegates. They countered with their own plan. On June 
14 Paterson asked for a day’s delay so that he might submit a “purely 
federal” scheme as an alternative to the Virginia Plan. The fruit of his 
labor and that of Sherman and others was the New Jersey, or Paterson, 
Plan, introduced on June 15. 

This proposal consisted of a set of nine resolutions designed to 
revise and strengthen the Articles of Confederation without abandon¬ 
ing them or changing their character as a league of states focused 
around the Continental Congress—which was all that many of the 
delegates felt they were authorized to do. New and expanded powers 
were proposed for Congress, in which each state was still to hold 
one vote. Included were the power to raise revenue through import 



Restored Assembly Room, where the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were 
debated, adopted, and signed. 


4 2 




















VIRGINIA 


AND 


NEW JERSEY 


PLANS 


duties, stamp taxes, and postage; the power to regulate commerce 
among the states and with foreign nations; the authority to force the 
states, when approved by an unspecified number of them, to support 
the government financially and militarily; and the right to use armed 
force to compel obedience to federal law by individuals as well as 
states. 

Dividing the federal authority into legislative, executive, and judi¬ 
cial branches like the Virginia Plan, the New Jersey Plan proposed a 
plural executive, elected by Congress for a single term and subject 
to removal by a majority of the state executives. The executive would 
have authority to appoint a supreme court. 

The New Jersey Plan was surely less radical than the nationalistic 
Virginia Plan, but it was not “purely federal.” The sixth resolution 
clearly established the primacy of congressional acts and treaties—a 
provision hardly in keeping with the notion of a voluntary compact 
of 13 separate but equal states. 

On June 16 and 19 the committee of the whole debated the New 
Jersey Plan. Arguing in its favor, Lansing of New York and Paterson 
of New Jersey asserted that the Virginia Plan must be rejected because 
the delegates lacked authority to create a government not based upon 
the existing Confederation and because the states and people would 
never approve such a plan. Wilson of Pennsylvania replied that the 
convention was authorized to propose whatever it chose. South 
Carolina’s Charles Pinckney tartly observed that if national represen¬ 
tation were made equal by states New Jersey would readily assent to 
the Virginia Plan. Randolph of Virginia claimed the national crisis was 
severe enough to warrant a departure from the Confederation system. 

At this point, on June 18, Hamilton of New York, who attended 
irregularly, gave one of his rare speeches—a long one. “Continental” 
in nature and monarchical in spirit, the supreme central government 
he proposed would make all the laws and appoint all state executives. 
The president would be responsible for executing laws enacted by 
the legislature and would enjoy veto power over their passage, as 
well as extensive appointment and treaty-making powers. Although 
the members of the lower house would be elected to 3-year terms 
by popular vote, the upper as well as the president would be chosen 
indirectly by electors and would hold office for life during good 
behavior. Not only would the power of the states be quashed, but 
also governmental control would be placed in the hands of the 
wealthy and participation of the populace at large minimized. The 
plan was clearly unacceptable to the majority of the delegates and 
they ignored it. 


4 3 



HISTORICAL 


background 


Part of the reason for Hamilton’s surprisingly small role in the 
debates was his extreme nationalism, which put him out of step with 
his fellows. Another factor was undoubtedly the frustrating effect of 
his minority position vis-a-vis the two other New York delegates, 
Lansing and Yates, who usually outvoted him to cast the state’s vote. 
For this reason, until they departed on July 10, he spent some time 
at home in New York City attending to his law practice; after they 
left, he had little more reason to participate because, as the sole 
delegate present from his state, he could not cast its vote. 

The day after Hamilton presented his plan, the delegates finished 
discussion of the New Jersey Plan. Madison made an extended 
address on the weakness of the proposal and sought to appeal to the 
self-interest of the small states in forming a strong union. Then, by 
a vote of seven states (Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, North 
Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia) to three 
(Delaware, New Jersey, and New York), with Maryland divided, the 
framers accepted the Virginia Plan. It was clear, however, that the idea 
of proportional representation in both houses was continuing to be 
strongly opposed. The convention adjourned the committee of the 
whole and went back into regular session to consider the resolutions 
that had been passed during the preceding weeks. 

During the period June 20-27, when the resolutions on the 
amended Virginia Plan began to be considered, the debates touched 
on a variety of subjects: the nature of representation, corruption of 
legislatures, and the purposes and functions of the upper and lower 
houses. The nationalists yielded on certain minor points. Several 
compromises were struck. Madison, Randolph, and others in their 
camp agreed to drop the word “national” from the committee’s first 
and third resolutions since that word had offended many. 

Other changes included the approval of a 6-year term for members 
of the upper house, one-third of whom were to be elected every 2 
years. Because this provision made no mention of the source of 
legislators’ pay, it retreated from the controversial stipulation in the 
resolution that they were to be paid out of the national treasury. 
Agreement was also reached that members of the legislature would 
not be simultaneously eligible for state and national offices. 

The Great Compromise 

By this time, despite such temporary harmony, feeling had grown so 
intense on the issue of representation that the convention seemed 
on the brink of dissolution. Some members began to talk about going 
home, but fortunately most were not willing to abandon hope of 
compromise. In a long and bitter speech on June 27 and 28, Luther 

4 4 



THE 


GREAT 


COMPROMISE 


Martin, a late arrival from Maryland who consistently opposed 
majority programs, took the floor and denounced Virginia, Mas¬ 
sachusetts, and Pennsylvania for seeking to control the other states. 
He upheld the principle of one vote for each state. In a forceful 
rebuttal, Madison stated that these three large states had not made 
common cause against the others under the Confederation. What the 
small states really had to fear, he insisted, was a continuation of the 
existing system, where they were really at the mercy of their large- 
state neighbors. 

Franklin, apparently believing that passions needed to be cooled, 
proposed that the daily sessions be opened with prayers offered by 
a local clergyman. Sherman seconded the motion, but Hamilton 
opposed it. The latter feared the presence of a minister might cause 
the public to believe the convention was torn with dissension. Others 
argued that reason—not heavenly help—was what was needed. In any 
case, Franklin’s proposal died after Williamson raised the embarrass¬ 
ing question of where the money would be obtained to pay the 
clergyman. 

AT this point, bitter debate began. It would last until mid-July. The 
subject was still representation in the national legislature. The result 
was the “Great” or “Connecticut” Compromise. The prolonged con¬ 
tention arose largely from the central position of the legislature in 
the proposed new scheme of government. Under the Virginia Plan, 
as revised, which the convention had accepted, the legislature would 
be virtually supreme. Not only would it elect the executive and the 
judiciary and have authority to annul all state laws, but also its overall 
authority in national affairs was extremely broad. 

On June 29 the convention voted six (Georgia, Massachusetts, 
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia) to four 
(Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York), with Maryland 
divided, to base representation in the lower house upon some system 
different from that used in the Confederation; this was almost 
precisely the same vote as on the same issue in the committee of 
the whole nearly 3 weeks earlier. Succeeding days brought continued 
discussion of the question of representation—but in the upper house. 
Franklin even made a complicated proposal for variable voting 
depending on the type of legislation. 

On July 2 a deadlock occurred on a vote to allow each state an 
equal voice in the upper house. Five states (Connecticut, Delaware, 
Maryland, New Jersey, and New York) were in favor and five (Mas¬ 
sachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia) 
were opposed; Georgia was divided. This key vote was determined 

4 3 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


partially by chance because one Maryland delegate was absent, which 
permitted Martin to cast the state’s vote, and Baldwin changed his 
stand and divided Georgia’s vote. The issue between the large and 
small states was joined. To break the impasse, a committee of one 
member from each of the 11 states present was appointed. 

The main body adjourned for July 3-4 to celebrate independence 
and to allow time for the committee to deliberate. It consisted of 
Gerry of Massachusetts, Sherman of Connecticut (sitting in for 
Ellsworth), Yates of New York, Paterson of New Jersey, Franklin of 
Pennsylvania, Bedford of Delaware, Luther Martin of Maryland, Mason 
of Virginia, Davie of North Carolina, Rutledge of South Carolina, and 
Baldwin of Georgia. 

The membership was notably weak in nationalists of the Madison 
and Wilson stripe, both of whom opposed establishment of the 
committee, and strong in states-rights men and moderate nationalists. 
The basic idea of a compromise had been suggested as early as June 
2 by Dickinson, and reiterated later by several others, notably Sher¬ 
man and Ellsworth. Thus, the decision of the committee came as no 
surprise. On July 3 Gerry brought in the report. It based representa¬ 
tion in the lower house on the free population and three-fifths of the 
slaves, and in the upper by state. In neither case was an exact total 
specified, nor was distribution made by state in the lower house. As 
a concession to the large states, it was further proposed that the lower 
house should possess exclusive power to initiate money bills without 
changes or amendments by the upper house. In the lower house, 
every 40,000 inhabitants were to be represented by one member; 
states having less population were each guaranteed one. 

This compromise solution still did not please most of the 
delegates, many of whom remained angry over the bitter debates that 
had preceded appointment of the committee. Its recommendations, 
however, provided a basis for action and steered the convention away 
from complete deadlock. On July 6 the part of the committee report 
giving special powers to the lower house was approved. 

That same day, another committee, dominated by large-state 
nationalists and made up of Gorham and King of Massachusetts, 
Randolph of Virginia, Rutledge of South Carolina, and Gouvemeur 
Morris of Pennsylvania, was created to iron out the numerical formula 
for state representation in the proposed lower house. The next day, 
the convention approved equality of votes in the upper. Two days 
later, on July 9, Morris presented the committee’s report. It recom¬ 
mended that the first assembly of the lower house consist of 56 seats. 
These had been hastily and subjectively broken down among the 13 
states (ranging from one to nine each), mainly on the basis of 

4 6 



THE 


GREAT 


C O M P R O M 


S E 


population but also to some degree on wealth. Subsequently, the 
national legislature was to vary apportionment of the seats based 
upon future alterations in the same elements. 

Yet an additional committee immediately came into being to 
prepare a more satisfactory distribution of seats in the lower house. 
The members were King, Sherman, Yates, Brearly, Gouverneur Morris, 
Read, Carroll, Madison, Williamson, Rutledge, and Houston. The next 
day, King delivered the report, which raised the number of seats to 
65, an increase of 1 for most of the states. This undoubtedly was 
attractive to the small ones. Efforts by Madison to double the number 
and by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to increase by one the seats for 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia were both defeated. 
Finally, the second committee’s formula was approved. 

The following day, July 11, was one of the most contentious of the 
summer. Debate focused on the role of slaves in the scheme of 
representation and the need for and mechanisms of a national 
census; the latter subject had first arisen the day before. Slavery was 
the second major controversial issue to arise during the representa¬ 
tion conflict and to require compromise. Unlike the large-small state 
clash, which was to have but slight later impact, this one, which 
revealed not only the different economic interests of the North and 
South but also presented a moral dilemma, was to lead to disunion 
and civil war. 

The crux of the problem was that most northern sentiment favored 
the counting of slaves in deciding each state’s share of direct federal 
taxes but not for representation. Most of the emissaries from southern 
states wanted to exclude slaves from the tax computation but to 
include them for the purpose of representation in the lower house, 
though they had no intention of permitting them to vote. Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney and Butler of South Carolina proposed that 
slaves be counted equally with freemen, but the motion failed by a 
vote of seven states to three (Delaware, Georgia, and South Carolina). 

New York was not registered on this or any subsequent tallies 
during the convention because the majority of its delegates, Yates 
and Lansing, had headed home after the previous day’s session. 
Followers of states-rights advocate Gov. George Clinton and at odds 
with their colleague, Hamilton, by this time they were probably sure 
that ultimately the convention would advocate a highly centralized 
type of government. They also had pressing legal and judicial busi¬ 
ness in New York. Apparently at the end of August they decided not 
to return to Philadelphia. After they left, Hamilton’s status was 
reduced to an unofficial one, and only 10 states voted until July 23, 
when New Hampshire’s representatives finally arrived. 


4 7 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Later on July 11, six states to four voted in favor of taking a census 
of free inhabitants to determine representation. By the same numeri¬ 
cal margin, a proposal was rejected to count three-fifths of the slaves, 
a formula that the Continental Congress had frequently utilized in 
making requisitions on the states and that had been discussed earlier 
in the convention. At the close of the session, the resolution on the 
census was annulled and the decision was made to adjourn. There 
was hope of progress on the morrow. 

That session began with a resolution by Gouvemeur Morris to 
correlate representation, based on wealth and population, with taxa¬ 
tion. After discussion and amendment to “direct” taxation, the 
measure passed unanimously. A separate motion, as amended, 
provided that a census was to be taken within 6 years of the adoption 
of the new government and thereafter once every decade (decen¬ 
nially) to determine the respective wealth and population of the 
states. As for the matter of slaves, representation and taxation were 
both to be computed by counting five of them as equal to three free 
inhabitants. A concession by the northern states, this assured souther¬ 
ners that all slaves would not be taxed as such and that their region 
would also gain some representational advantage. Some southern 
delegates once more tried to amend the motion to count slaves 
equally with free inhabitants, but the motion met defeat by a vote of 















THE 


GREAT 


COMPROMISE 


eight states to two. A divisive issue had been bridged and the way 
to the Great Compromise lay open. 

The most significant action on Friday, July 13, was a vote to 
eliminate wealth as a basis for representation in the lower house of 
the national legislature. Wilson and Randolph brought nine states 
with them in this tally, despite the vigorous protests of Gouvemeur 
Morris. Population was thus established as the sole criterion for the 
apportionment of representation. When new states were admitted, 
representation of the old would be adjusted at the time of the 
succeeding census. 

The next day, Saturday, July 14, the large-state nationalists again 
tried to improve their position. Charles Pinckney proposed a specific 
apportionment scheme for the upper house, based generally upon 
population. Despite the support of Wilson and Madison, the resolu¬ 
tion failed six states to four. The compromise was holding. 

On Monday, the 16th, the body reconvened to consider the Great 
Compromise as a whole in its final form. The vote was close: five 
states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and North 
Carolina) in favor, four (Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and 
Virginia) opposed, and Massachusetts split. 

That night, July 16—not convinced by the slim 5-4-1 vote of the 
need or the desirability of surrender—representatives of the large 
states met informally at the Indian Queen Tavern to consider the 
situation. The next morning, before the convention proceedings 
resumed, they caucused formally. Had the large states surrendered 
too much to the small? Should they continue to attend the conven¬ 
tion? Should they continue to oppose the Great Compromise? After 
much discussion, they could not agree. This irresolution did not 
satisfy the diehards among them, but it cleared the way for continua¬ 
tion of the business of writing the new constitution because the 
large-state delegates no longer presented a united front. 

The most controversial issue was now essentially resolved, but 
much remained to be done. Many details were still vague and 
undefined. A document incorporating the decisions of the convention 
to that point still needed to be written. But the principal obstacle 
sharply dividing men who agreed that the Articles of Confederation 
needed a complete overhaul had been overcome. In the lower house 
of the proposed national legislature, representation would be ad¬ 
justed in relation to population, as revealed by a decennial census, 
and three-fifths of the slaves would be counted. In the upper house, 
each state would enjoy equal representation. 

The Great Compromise, by correlating representation with popula¬ 
tion in the lower house and providing for equality by state in the 

4 9 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


upper, confirmed the existence of the states and gave Congress both 
federal and national attributes. The fears of many small-state delegates 
that the large states would control the Union, if not put totally to rest, 
were measurably assuaged. On the whole, the compromise was a 
victory for the small states, though on other matters their delegates 
tended to follow the Virginia Plan, which provided for a strong central 
government. Although Madison and other large-state delegates had 
opposed the compromise right up to the last, they recognized it was 
the price they had to pay for a consolidated Union. The small states, 
by yielding on equal representation in the lower house, had aban¬ 
doned their hopes for a mere league of states like that provided for 
by the Articles of Confederation. The large states, by accepting 
equality of voting power in the Senate, signaled the end of their 
attempts to dominate the government. 

On the other hand, from this point on the small states, recognizing 
they would have a greater share of power in the central government 
than their population or wealth warranted, were no less desirous of 
strengthening the central government than the large ones. 

Writing the First Draft 

With the most severe crisis of the convention behind them, during 
the period from July 17 to July 26 the delegates discussed and more 
easily settled a number of specifics of the proposed constitution. It 
was agreed that the national legislature would “enjoy the Legislative 
rights vested in Congress by the Confederation, and moreover to 
legislate in all cases for the general interests of the Union, and also 
in those to which the States are separately incompetent, or in which 
the harmony of the United States may be interrupted by the exercise 
of individual legislation.” But the proposed capability of the national 
legislature to negate state laws was dropped. In the upper house, 
each state was to have two representatives, who would vote as 
individuals rather than as a unit. The national court system was 
granted jurisdiction over cases stemming from laws passed by the 
legislature and over questions related to national peace and harmony. 

Many other issues reached the floor but did not result in changes 
to the emerging constitution. These included efforts to empower state 
legislatures to ratify the instrument, to remove the provision for 
impeachment of the executive, and to strike appointment by the 
upper house of judges of the “supreme tribunal.” 

The matters that proved the most difficult to resolve, even tenta¬ 
tively, in this comparatively harmonious phase of the convention 
were those dealing with election of the executive, the length of his 

5 0 



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The Great Compromise of July 16, 1787, as recorded by Secretary Jackson on the first of two 
pages in the official convention journal. 





























HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


term, and his eligibility for reelection. Proposals were entertained and 
then voted down for election by the people at large, electors chosen 
by the legislatures, the governors or electors picked by them, the 
national legislature, and electors chosen by lot from the legislature. 
Some delegates suggested that the executive should be eligible for 
reelection. Others questioned the proposed 7-year term of office. 
After extensive debate, on July 26 the decision was made to retain 
the original resolution. The national legislature was to elect the 
executive for a single 7-year nonrenewable term. 

ON July 26 the convention adjourned until August 6 to allow a 
five-member “committee of detail,” which had been appointed on 
July 24, to prepare a draft instrument incorporating the sense of what 
had been decided upon over many weeks. While some of the 
delegates went home and others rested and relaxed in or near 
Philadelphia, the committee (Rutledge of South Carolina, Randolph 
of Virginia, Wilson of Pennsylvania, Ellsworth of Connecticut, and 
Gorham of Massachusetts) went about its work. Within a few days, a 
draft of the constitution was sent to Dunlap & Claypoole, the firm 
on Market Street that handled printing for the Continental Congress, 
which was meeting in New York City. The compositor for most of 
the convention’s work was likely David C. Claypoole because his 
partner, John Dunlap, was apparently away most of the time coor¬ 
dinating congressional printing. 

About August 1 a seven-page set of proofs was returned to the 
committee. After its deliberations, a corrected copy bearing Ran¬ 
dolph’s emendations, a dozen in number, was sent back to the 
printer, who incorporated them. By August 6 a first draft of the 
constitution had been printed, numbering probably 60 copies; it was 
the first printed rendition of the instrument in any form. The seven- 
page folio draft, which provided ample left-hand margins for notes 
and comments, consisted of a preamble and 23 articles. Randolph 
had apparently prepared a rough draft, which Rutledge and Wilson 
thoroughly reworked. 

The committee conscientiously tried to express the will of the 
convention, but it also made some modifications and changes that 
provoked considerable debate. In selecting provisions and phrases, 
the conferees borrowed extensively from a variety of sources. Of 
course, the approved resolutions that had sprung from the Virginia 
Plan provided the basic ideas. But state constitutions, particularly that 
of New York (1777), and the Articles of Confederation were leaned 
on heavily, as was also to a lesser degree Charles Pinckney’s long-ig- 


5 2 



THE first draft 


nored plan. Certain state papers of the Confederation and the rejected 
New Jersey Plan also provided some of the wording and substance. 

The committee necessarily filled in many specifics that various 
resolutions had left vague or unexpressed. For the first time, names, 
largely derived from the state constitutions, were given to the mem¬ 
bers and branches of the national government: President, Congress, 
House of Representatives, Speaker, Senate, and Supreme Court. The 
famous opening phrase of the final Constitution’s preamble, “We the 
People,” appeared for the first time, as did such others as the 
“privileges and immunities” of citizens and the presidential “state of 
the Union” message. 

Instead of the broad general authority voted to the courts and 
Congress before the recess, significantly the draft enumerated 18 
congressional powers and also areas of jurisdiction for the federal 
courts. It likewise listed powers for the chief executive, though the 
convention’s resolutions had laid a precedent for that. 

The last and most sweeping of the congressional authorities was 
the right to make all laws ’’necessary and proper” to carry out the 
enumerated powers and all others vested in the central government 
by the Constitution. Essentially all the old powers of the Continental 
Congress under the Articles of Confederation were retained. To them 
were added new ones, which the majority of delegates felt were 
essential to correct the defects in the old frame of government. 

Among the new congressional mandates was the most vital one 
missing under the old system: authority to impose and collect direct 
taxes of several kinds. Other new powers conferred were the regula¬ 
tion of domestic and foreign commerce, establishment of nationwide 
rules for the naturalization of citizens, coining and borrowing of 
money, organization of a national army and navy, authority to call up 
the state militias, election of a national treasurer, and the quashing 
of rebellion in the states, with the permission of the appropriate 
legislatures. Directly contrary to a resolution of the convention, 
however, the committee draft specified that the states would pay the 
congressmen. 

Particular prerogatives of the House of Representatives and the 
Senate were specified, the principles of their parliamentary organiza¬ 
tion were outlined, and the privileges of their members were listed. 
Some of these provisions were modeled on similar ones in state 
constitutions. The Senate would appoint ambassadors and Supreme 
Court judges, make treaties, and participate in the settlement of 
interstate disputes. The House alone could impeach errant high 
federal officials, including the President, and originate money bills. 

5 3 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Each house would enjoy a virtual veto on the other, for bills would 
need to pass both to become law. 

In its attempt to define the areas of national authority more 
precisely, presumably to allay the fears of the less nationalistic 
delegates, the committee of detail included express restrictions on 
certain actions by the legislature. Three of these, apparently reflecting 
the sentiments of Chairman John Rutledge of South Carolina, were 
designed to protect the interests of the southern states. One 
prohibited the national government from passing any “navigation act” 
or tariff without a two-thirds majority of members present in both 
houses of Congress. Another, without employing the word “slaves,” 
forbade the legislature from taxing or prohibiting the import of slaves 
or their migration. The third provided that it could pass no law taxing 
exports. It would also be unable to approve personal capitation taxes 
except in proportion to the census. The government as a whole was 
barred from creating titles of nobility and was limited in the defini¬ 
tion it could give to treason. 

The legislature would elect the President for a single 7-year term. 
His powers were somewhat more carefully spelled out than 
previously, though not significantly augmented. The most important 
of these was the veto, though this could be overriden by a two-thirds 
vote of both houses of Congress. The chief executive would exercise 
general executive powers for the enforcement of all national laws, 
appoint key officials except for ambassadors and judges, enjoy the 
right to pardon, and serve as commander in chief. His responsibilities 
of informing the legislature about state matters, making recommen¬ 
dations to it, receiving ambassadors, and corresponding with state 
executives involved him directly in the formulation of legislative 
programs and foreign relations. The provisions relating to the 
presidency were strongly influenced by state constitutions, especially 
that of New York. 

The committee of detail outlined new prohibitions upon the rights 
of the states that went far toward establishing national dominance. 
They were not to coin money or grant letters of marque and reprisal. 
Without the consent of Congress, they could not emit bills of credit, 
issue paper money, tax imports or exports, or make agreements with 
other states. Reiterated were the old Articles of Confederation provi¬ 
sions preventing any of them from entering into independent treaties, 
alliances, or confederations, waging war independently, or granting 
titles of nobility. 

Relations among the states would be governed by principles of 
equality, including recognition of the “privileges and immunities” of 
each other’s citizens and “full faith and credit” for official actions. 

5 4 















W E the People of the States 

of New-Hampihire, Mallachufetts, 
Rhode-Ifland and Providence Plan¬ 
tations, Connecticut, Ncw-York, New-Jerfey, Penn- 
fylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Caro- 
lina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare 
and eftablifh the following Conftitution for the Govern¬ 
ment of Ourfelves and our Pofterity. 


ZL 






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ARTICLE I, 

The Itik of tbu Government fhill be, “ The United State* of America.” 

«. 

The Government fhall confift of fupreme legtflative, executive and judicial 
power*. 

HI. 

The legislative power lball be veiled in a Congreft, to conftll of two Separate 
diftincl bodies of men, a Houfe of Reprefentatives, and a Senate; wall ti 4 
dl w l l) in a il >ai* s , h a m w — gu*i u» nwwiw*b—> Th a i. nm »i m > (h alt 


e- a ■* * * ' 


nhf fir ft M miUy k OxtuHbW" 


IV. 


St Cl. i. The Member* of the Houfe of Reprefentatives fliall be chofen eve¬ 
ry Second year, by the people of the feveral States comprehended within tbia 
Union, The qualification* of the eleflor* Stall be the fame, from time to time, 
as thofe of the elector* in the feveral State*, of the moil numerous branch of 
their own legislatures. 

Stff. a. Every Member of the Houfe of Rrpre f cnta->VT • flail be ef *ke ace 
of twenty*five years at leaft; Stall have been a citv.cn as the United Stair* 
for at jeaft fMVTfeara before hi* eiecHon; and fiwfl be, at the time of hi* c- 
kGton, WMmiHB of the State in which he (ball bt cbofen 






j 


StCl. 3. The Houfe of Reprefentatives Bull, at it* ftrft formation, and until 
the number of citizens and inhabitant* fhallbe taken in the manner herein af¬ 
ter deferibed, confift of fixty-five Member*, of whom three (hall be chofen in 
N«w-IIamp!hlre, eight in Mafladmfctts, one in Rhode Wand and Providence 
Plantation*, five in Conne&icut, fix in New-York, four in New-Jerfey, eight 
in Pennfylvania, one in Delaware, fix in Maryland, ten in Virginia, five in 
Norch-Carolina, five in South-Carolina, and three in Georgia. 


r 


V. 


Hetf rf A s »*,*> t 

•<vr 


M • ■ '< i/m* 




Jt 


ture fhall, in each of tbefy cafe*,, regulate 1 
number of inbftmants, according to me 


Srfl. 4. A* the proportion* of number* in the different State* will aher from 
time to time; a* fome of the State* may hereafter be divided; as others may 
be enlarged by addition of territory; a* two or more States may be united; as 
new State* will be erected within the limits of the United State*, the Ltfifia- 
.date the nu mber ail r eoicfcntativ 
want*, according to me ^ 

rate of one far evtrry forty thoufand. kfcs? /**f*y1 

StJ. 5, All bilk for raifing or appropriating ftionry, and for fixing tU fala- 
i, rk* of the officer* of government, {hah originate in the'PLcfe of RfpvdRSsji,- ■ 
) lives, and ft:ail not be altered or amended by tbe Senate. No money shaft be. 

! drawn from tbe pubfic Treafury, but in purluance of appropriation* that fhali 
, originate in the Houfe of Representative*. 

Set 5 f. 6. The Houfe of Reprefcntative* fliall have the (ble power of impeach¬ 
ment. It (hall cboofc it* Speaker and other officer*. 

Std. 7. Vacancie* in the Houfe of Reprefcntative* fhaB be fupplkd by writ* 
of ekflicn from tbe executive authority of the State, in the reprdentation from 
whkh they (hall happen. V. 


4 




* 


George Washington’s annotated copy of the committee of detail draft of the Constitution. The 
first printed version, it was distributed to the delegates shortly after the convention reconvened 

on August 6, 1787. 


5 5 







HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Arrangements were to be made for the extradition of criminals. These 
measures were virtually identical with similar ones in effect under 
the Articles, though they had not really ameliorated interstate con¬ 
flicts. The federal judiciary now would be in a position to apply these 
provisions under the new government. 

Another problem the Confederation had not resolved, the admis¬ 
sion of new states, was to be handled by admitting them on an equal 
basis with the original ones, by a two-thirds vote of those present in 
each house of Congress. 

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, now also more precisely 
defined, would include cases arising under U.S. laws, those affecting 
public officials, maritime and admiralty matters, interstate disputes, 
and legal contests among citizens of more than one state, between 
states, and when other countries or aliens were involved. The Court 
would also try impeachments brought by the House of Representa¬ 
tives. 

Although instructed to report property qualifications for Members 
of Congress, the committee directed Congress to do so itself. A 
further specification was that qualifications for voting to elect mem¬ 
bers of the House of Representatives were to be tied to state law; 
people who could vote for the more numerous house of the state 
legislatures were to constitute the electorate for the House of 
Representatives. In practice, the state regulations on this subject had 
varied widely and a uniform formula would have not only been 
difficult to devise but might also have seemed to intrude too much 
on state authority. In the vexing matter of the number of states 
required to approve the Constitution before it became the law of the 
land, the committee simply left a blank. The convention would have 
to decide. 

Demonstrating considerable skill and energy, the committee of 
detail had performed creditably, though the degree of the changes 
and innovations it had made apparently surprised the delegates. Its 
services were not completely done, and it reported to the convention 
from time to time later on, when difficult matters were referred for 
its consideration. 

The convention reconvened on August 6. Either on that day or the 
next the delegates received individual printed copies and began to 
consider the first draft of their handiwork. 

Debates and Revisions 

Five weeks of intensive discussion were required to revise the draft 
constitution. These weeks were tedious and debilitating for the 


5 6 



DEBATES 


AND 


REV 


S I O N S 


delegates. The weather, in a day of no air conditioning, was 
miserable. Many of those in attendance had been away from their 
families and professional duties since May. All wanted to finish and 
go home. In fact, as time passed, the pressure of personal business 
and other factors, including dissatisfaction with the course of the 
proceedings, lured a few more individuals away from Philadelphia 
beyond those who had already departed. 

Those who stayed became increasingly anxious to finish their 
work. In mid-August lengthened sessions were briefly experimented 
with, but this proved to be unsatisfactory, for they interfered with the 
dinner hour. Speeches tended to become more concise and the spirit 
of compromise intensified. And more and more the strong 
nationalists—Madison, Wilson, and Gouvemeur Morris among the 
leaders—gained the dominant voice. As the draft constitution was 
studied article by article and line by line, much debate occurred, 
mostly on a high level, though some of it was tedious and inconse¬ 
quential. The process had to be endured, however, and many sig¬ 
nificant changes emerged from it. 

The question of the number of representatives proved to be a 
source of difficulty. The committee of detail had specified one in the 
lower house for each 40,000 inhabitants. Madison, objecting, con¬ 
tended that as population increased that body would grow to an 
unwieldy size. The states voted unanimously to change the wording 
of the provision to read “not exceeding the rate of one for every forty 
thousand.” 

Another matter attracting much attention was the citizenship and 
minimum residency requirements for senators and representatives. 
The committee of detail had proposed 3 years of citizenship for 
members of the House and 4 years for the Senate. Fearing new 
residents might be too much influenced by their foreign background, 
the delegates increased the figures to 7 and 9 years, respectively. 

Countering its earlier instructions to the committee of detail, the 
convention refused to prescribe property qualifications of any sort 
(either land or capital) for federal officeholders, though most states 
specified such requirements for both voting and officeholding. Al¬ 
though Charles Pinckney and Gerry argued for such restrictions, the 
convention accepted Franklin’s reasoning that they would debase the 
“spirit of the common people.” Pinckney, however, was responsible 
for the motion barring religious tests for officeholding; these were 
also a common feature of state laws. 

The committee of detail had revived the question of who should 
pay congressmen. By a large majority, its suggestion that the states 

5 7 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


do so was revoked, and the convention’s earlier resolution that they 
be compensated from the national treasury was reinserted. 

Added to the congressional powers granted by the committee draft 
was the vesting of the legislature with authority to declare war. 
Gouverneur Morris argued strenuously against the provision giving 
the national government power to “borrow money and emit bills.” 
He held that the “Monied interest” in the nation would oppose the 
Constitution if paper money were not prohibited. Because the 
government would enjoy the capability to borrow money and 
presumably to use public notes, the delegates heeded Morris’ objec¬ 
tions and struck out the phrase. A limit on congressional tariff powers 
also won approval. It specified that tariffs would need to be uniformly 
and equally applied throughout the country. 

The Great Compromise had included a clause stating that money 
bills should originate in the House of Representatives and not be 
subject to Senate amendment. Many delegates had entertained serious 
reservations about this provision. It had been borrowed from colonial 
and state procedures, which had not always worked well. The issue 
came up twice in early August during debates in which many 
delegates participated, but the convention, after tentatively resolving 
it twice again, found it so dangerous that it threatened to overturn 
the entire Great Compromise. Final consideration of it was postponed 
until the powers of the Senate might be considered. 

Several delegates argued vociferously that the national government 
must assume the state, as well as national, or Confederation, war 
debts, on the grounds that they had all been incurred for the 
common good during the Revolution. Opponents of this proposal 
contended it would benefit speculators rather than legitimate debt 
holders. Some controversy also arose between some of the states that 
had paid off substantial parts of their war debts and some of those 
that had not. The question was hotly disputed because it involved 
Congress taking over the states’ power to tax imports, a major source 
of their income. An assumption of state debts would lessen the 
reluctance of creditor interests in the states to support the new 
Constitution. The matter was referred to a special committee, com¬ 
posed of one member from each state. 

After that group reported a compromise, which was followed by 
another frustrating debate, the delegates approved an amended ver¬ 
sion that merely stated that “all debts contracted and engagements 
entered into, by or under the authority of Congress shall be as valid 
against the United States under this constitution as under the con¬ 
federation.” This ambiguous wording avoided the difficult question 
of exactly what debts were valid against the Confederation. 

5 8 



DEBATES 


AND 


REV 


S I O N S 


A recommendation to give the national government power over 
the state militias touched on the vital matter of states rights and on 
the Continental Army’s troubled dealing with the militias during the 
Revolution. The dispute was so grievous that a committee was 
instructed to bring in a solution. It was proposed that the national 
government be empowered to pass laws requiring uniform militia 
organization from state to state and comparability of arms and dis¬ 
cipline. The government also gained the power to control units called 
into federal service. The states retained the right to train their own 
militias and appoint their own officers. These recommendations were 
accepted without amendment. 

One of the sharpest exchanges of the convention occurred toward 
the end of August over slavery and the committee of detail’s plan to 
protect the import slave trade and prohibit federal taxation of it. This 
was an explosive issue. Some northern delegates and Mason of 
Virginia objected to slavery or the slave trade on moral grounds; 
others saw more practical considerations. Luther Martin pointed out 
that prohibition of an import tax on slaves meant lack of national 
control over the traffic and provided a possible incentive to the 
southern states to augment their representation by adding to their 
slave populations. The power to tax could, on the other hand, be 
used to discourage or prevent the import of slaves, and southerners 
tended to oppose this. Mixed into this debate and into that on the 
regulation of foreign trade was the matter of divergent economic 
interests in the states. A related problem involving southern-northern 
conflict was the specification in the draft constitution that a two-thirds 
vote would be necessary to pass navigation acts. 

After many delegates had expressed their opinions, the unresolved 
matters of slave import regulation, federal taxation of it, and the 
navigation acts were turned over to another special committee, 
consisting of one member from each state. Complicating solution of 
this issue further was the Northwest Ordinance, which the Conti¬ 
nental Congress had passed the preceding month. By providing that 
states formed north of the Ohio would be free of slavery, the ordinance 
touched on an argument that later would be of great significance, 
the status of that institution in new territories and states. Any com¬ 
promise would presumably need to heed this new legislation. 

The committee presented a complicated compromise. Congress 
could not act to prohibit the import of slaves before 1800 into states 
that had existed in 1787, but it might tax such importation at an 
average rate compared to that for other imports. The committee also 
suggested that a simple congressional majority should be sufficient 
to pass navigation acts. 

5 9 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


The part of the compromise dealing with the trade in slaves 
underwent modification. Congress was instructed not to forbid the 
traffic prior to 1808 (again for those states existing in 1787) and a 
specific limit was set on the taxes that might be imposed on it. Over 




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As the summer dragged on, many delegates questioned whether or not the convention would 
ever reach agreement. In this extract from a letter written on August 23, 1787, by William 
Paterson from his home in New Jersey to fellow-delegate Oliver Ellsworth (Connecticut), the 
former wonders: “What are the Convention about? When will they rise? Will they agree upon 
a System energetick and effectual, or will they break up without doing any Thing to the 
Purpose?” 

6 0 





DEBATES 


AND 


REVISIONS 


the objections of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, 
the part of the compromise concerning slavery was accepted. Both 
sides probably privately considered the result a victory. Antislavery 
delegates felt they had succeeded in writing into the Constitution a 
provision that could ultimately end the importation of slaves. Pro¬ 
slavery delegates hoped that agitation against the slave trade might 
disappear after a moratorium of two decades. 

Simply to have made it possible to act against the slave trade at 
that future time was as substantial a victory as the antislavery men at 
Philadelphia could win in view of existing political realities. The 
southern states would have rejected any major restrictions on slavery, 
and the northern would compromise no further, though they soon 
accepted without protest a provision for the return of fugitive slaves. 
The stipulation that abolition of the slave trade could be considered 
after 1808 at least demonstrated that the founders were not all 
immutably subscribing to the system and that future action against it 
was not precluded. 

Indicative of the gingerly manner in which the topic was treated 
in the convention, the words “slave” and “slavery” do not even 
appear in the final Constitution, where slaves are referred to by such 
euphemisms as “other persons.” As a matter of fact, the subject is 
touched on in only a few places. Articles I and II prevent Congress 
from outlawing the import trade in slaves until 1808. And existence 
of the institution is acknowledged in the “three-fifths” clause dealing 
with representation (Article I) as well as in the stipulation for extra¬ 
dition of an escaped “Person held to Service or Labour” (Article IV). 

Had the delegates not handled the issue so carefully and obtained 
the support of all sections, the convention would probably have 
dissolved over it. On the other hand, the compromise brought the 
moral price of the Constitution to a high level. 

The second part of the compromise dropped the two-thirds re¬ 
quirement for adoption of navigation acts by Congress. In some ways, 
acceptance of this provision represented a greater potential sacrifice 
for the South than most other compromises of the summer. As a 
region producing an abundance of staple crops and needing to 
export surpluses, it was fearful of granting the general government 
power to tax imports and exports. Randolph and Mason of Virginia 
were worried, prophetically as it turned out, that if northern commer¬ 
cial and manufacturing centers gained in population and power they 
would enact taxes and other measures destructive of the southern 
economy. 

A number of southern delegates, however, failed to heed their two 
colleagues and voted for the compromise. The southern states were 

6 1 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


probably conciliatory on this issue because they had earlier won 
exemption of exports from federal taxation. Many southerners also 
believed that the future would bring rapid expansion to the agricul¬ 
tural sections of the country and that the South and West, as 
economic allies, would be able to prevent the commercial states of 
the Northeast from dominating the government. The future would 
prove them wrong. The northern states were content with this part 
of the complex compromise because it would allow them to pass 
commerce legislation more easily than they had anticipated. 

New prohibitions on congressional action suggested and approved 
by the frill convention while reviewing the draft of the committee of 
detail included ones against bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and 
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in peacetime. Troubles in 
trying to agree on the powers of the Senate caused postponement of 
action on this matter. The delegates did strike out its role in the 
settlement of interstate disputes and passed this to the Supreme 
Court. The authorities of the House of Representatives gave rise to 
little controversy during this period of the debates. 

The veto power of the President was also enhanced. Williamson 
moved, and the delegates endorsed, a three-fourths vote of each 
house to override the veto of the executive. This move was un¬ 
doubtedly motivated by a desire to increase his independence from 
the legislature, which was at this point still slated to elect him. 

Late in August the convention once again debated election of the 
President. Misunderstanding arose over the method of casting the 
legislative ballot. The delegates proceeded to approve a joint vote by 
the two houses, rather than separate ballots by each of them. The 
small states protested because they felt this decision would virtually 
give the power of election to the large states, whose contingents in 
the lower House were strong. 

Unable to resolve this problem readily, the convention returned to 
discussion of the President’s powers, largely going along with the 
original committee of detail’s proposals. Adopted from a supplemen¬ 
tary committee report, on August 22, were provisions that the Presi¬ 
dent should be 35 years of age and a resident for 21 years. A 
suggestion in this same report that the President enjoy the advice of 
a privy council of cabinet members and top legislators died without 
formal consideration. 

Occasioning only brief discussion was jurisdiction of the federal 
courts. It was extended far beyond what had been granted by the 
committee of detail, which had given them power only over cases 
arising under federal legislative acts. This was now amended to 

6 2 



DEBATES 


AND 


R E V I S 


O N S 


include all cases arising under the Constitution, which was to be the 
“supreme law.” 

Curiously, the right of the Supreme Court to pass finally on the 
constitutionality of laws, treaties, and executive actions was not 
explicitly stated, though many of the delegates apparently understood 
that it would exercise such authority. On one matter previously 
assigned to it, the trying of impeachments, the committee postponed 
a decision. 

Anxious to assert exclusive national authority over what they 
deemed to be vital matters, the delegates not only approved com¬ 
mittee limitations on the states, but also imposed certain additional 
ones, especially a prohibition on the issuance of paper money. 

The admission of new states was also a provocative issue. The 
committee of detail had proposed that they be admitted as equals 
with the older ones by a two-thirds vote in each house. Gouverneur 
Morris, who had previously argued that the preponderance of power 
must remain with the original seaboard states, renewed his objec¬ 
tions. Despite cogent rebuttals from Madison, Mason, and Sherman, 
he persuaded the convention to alter the committee’s proposal. The 
statement “New States may be admitted by the Legislature into the 
Union” was then unanimously substituted. Morris long remained 
convinced that it really meant the eastern states would govern much 
of the West. So noncommittal was the language, however, that future 
Congresses were to interpret it to mean that a virtually unlimited 
number of new states could be brought into the Union as equals of 
the original ones. 

Provisions relating to interstate relations, which the committee of 
detail had largely adapted from the Articles of Confederation, met 
approval with minor changes. Included were the extradition of 
criminals and the return of fugitive slaves, as well as state recognition 
of each other’s legislative and judicial actions and the “privileges and 
immunities” of citizens. Also adopted was the committee of detail 
proposal that when two-thirds of the state legislatures applied to 
Congress for an amendment to the Constitution a convention would 
be called to consider it. 

As for the number of states required to ratify the completed 
Constitution, the committee of detail had left the number blank. Ideas 
on this issue ranged from proposals that all 13 must express their 
approval, as the Articles of Confederation required, to suggestions 
from Madison, Wilson, and Washington that a bare majority, 7, would 
be sufficient. Nine was finally chosen as the proper number. This 
action demonstrated a crucial break with the Articles of Confedera- 


6 3 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


tion. The delicate matter of the role of the Continental Congress in 
the ratifying process also caused debate. The delegates boldly 
resolved to submit the Constitution to it with the recommendation 
that the instrument simply be forwarded to conventions in the states. 

The Question of Presidential Election and Authority 
By August 31 the delegates had considered practically all the recom¬ 
mendations of the committee of detail word by word. They were 
fatigued, restless, and wanted to go home, but a number of loose 
ends remained. The most important of these “postponed matters” 
were the method of election of the President, the locus of appointive 
powers and treatymaking, the organ of government that would try 
impeachments, and the method of originating money bills. 

Because the procedure seemed to have worked so well before, the 
convention appointed a committee on postponed matters. Represent¬ 
ing each of the 11 states officially in attendance, it was chaired by 
Brearly of New Jersey and included Sherman of Connecticut, Dickin¬ 
son of Delaware, Baldwin of Georgia, Carroll of Maryland, King of 
Massachusetts, Gilman of New Hampshire, Williamson of North 
Carolina, Gouvemeur Morris of Pennsylvania, Butler of South Carolina, 
and Madison of Virginia. 

The committee, which reported on several days in early September, 
modified the draft constitution extensively, largely to the satisfaction 
of the convention. Details of the qualifications of the President were 
changed somewhat. His term was reduced from 7 years to 4, and no 
limit was set on reeligibility. The minimum residence requirement 
was reduced from 21 to 14 years, but the President was required to 
be either native born or a U.S. citizen at the time of the adoption of 
the Constitution. His powers were augmented considerably. He 
gained authority to make treaties, which would need to be approved 
by two-thirds of the Senators, and to appoint ambassadors, judges, 
and other officials, including members of the Supreme Court. Ap¬ 
pointees would be subject to the endorsement of a Senate majority. 

The committee also proposed that power to try impeachments of 
high officials be transferred from the Supreme Court to the Senate 
and that conviction require a two-thirds majority. 

The most difficult “postponed matter” was election of the Presi¬ 
dent. From the beginning of the convention there had been little 
dispute about his importance, but agreement could never be reached 
on how he would be elected. So long as a consensus prevailed that 
he be chosen by the legislature, most delegates felt he should serve 
a rather long term and be ineligible for reelection to prevent undue 
legislative influence on him. Madison, Wilson, and some other 

6 4 



PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND AUTHORITY 


leaders favored, at least in theory, direct or indirect election by the 
people. But a direct popular vote seemed impractical. There was no 
uniform national franchise, and the convention had not even at¬ 
tempted to create one. Many of the delegates and other national 
leaders shared a conviction that the people at large were incapable 
of making a wise selection. In addition, no system existed to limit 
candidates to a reasonable number. Finally, some accommodation to 
the federal character of the Union was imperative. 

The committee on postponed matters offered an ingenious and 
complex method of election that met widespread approval. Electors 
would be selected in each state, according to a method chosen by 
the legislature. The number of electors would equal the state’s total 
of senators and representatives. The electors would ballot for two 
persons, at least one of whom could not be a resident of their state. 
The votes would be dispatched to the Senate. The person holding a 
majority of the votes would become President. But what if no 
candidate received a majority? The Senate would then choose the 
President from the five candidates who had won the most votes. 

The person holding the second highest number of electoral votes 
would become Vice President; in case of a tie, the Senate would make 
a choice. This was a new office that many delegates only grudgingly 
accepted. Its occupant would preside over the Senate, cast the 
deciding vote there in case of ties, and occupy the presidency in the 
event the incumbent died, resigned, or was otherwise unable to fill 
the office. 

The committee on postponed matters carefully avoided an elec¬ 
toral scheme that would grant absolute power to the people at large 
to elect the President. Few delegates would allow that, and those who 
supported the idea knew that most of the states would not. On the 
other hand, the committee left the way open to the evolution of a 
form of popular election by allowing the states to determine the 
method of choosing electors. The small and large states were both 
pleased with the formula of adding each state’s representatives and 
senators to arrive at its electoral vote. 

Objections led to some modification of the committee’s proposals. 
Many of the founders feared for the future. They were reasonably 
certain Washington would be the first President, but they foresaw that 
it might be difficult to agree upon his successor and the Senate might 
thus need to make the choice. This would allow it to exercise undue, 
perhaps even oligarchic, influence. The committee, trying to an¬ 
ticipate this fear, had already stripped the Senate of much of its 
treatymaking and appointive powers by shifting basic authority in 
these areas to the President. 


6 5 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Now, after a vigorous debate, the Senate lost its prerogative of 
choosing the President in cases where no candidate had a majority. 
The convention was in a quandary again because the small states 
bitterly opposed election by the House. At Sherman’s suggestion, a 
fresh crisis was avoided by obtaining agreement that the House of 
Representatives would indeed choose the President in the event none 
of the five leading candidates had won a majority. Each state, 
however, would have only one vote regardless of its number of 
representatives. 

The trying issue of the authority and election of the President was 
at last resolved. The committee on postponed matters had given him 
larger powers and reduced his dependence on the legislature. Al¬ 
though rumors outside the statehouse reported the convention was 
considering the establishment of a monarchy, no such thing was in 
the minds of the majority. Instead, it was determined to balance the 
three branches of government so that no one would dominate the 
others. A strong, independent executive was sought, not a too-power- 
ful Senate. The intent was to achieve a balance between the executive 
and legislature. 

One last compromise remained. The matter of originating money 
bills had been debated and tentatively resolved several times. The 
large states, which would enjoy stronger representation in the lower 
House, were determined that money bills be initiated there without 
amendment by the upper. The small states hoped that the Senate, 
where they would be more powerful, would play a role. It was finally 
agreed that such bills would originate in the House of Representa¬ 
tives but would be subject to senatorial amendment. 

The Final Draft 

By the close of business on September 8, review of the work of the 
committee on postponed matters had been essentially finished. It 
remained to put the emerging constitution into its final form, ap¬ 
prove, and sign it. To this end, another committee, of style, or 
revision, to put the finishing touches on the work of the convention, 
was selected. It consisted of five talented and distinguished members: 
Chairman William Samuel Johnson, Gouvemeur Morris, Madison, 
King, and Hamilton. These men worked from September 8 to 12. 
Little is known about their procedures or day-to-day workings. The 
preponderance of evidence, however, suggests that Gouvemeur Mor¬ 
ris was the actual “penman,” or drafter, of the Constitution. 

Meantime, the rest of the delegates had made a few last-minute 
adjustments in their handiwork. Amendments could be initiated by 
two-thirds of the Congress or by a constitutional convention if 

6 6 



the final draft 


two-thirds of the state legislatures so requested. Proposed amend¬ 
ments would have to be approved by three-fourths of the states, 
acting through their legislatures or conventions. Some delegates were 
concerned that the amending process might undo the work of the 
convention, but the only specific limitation put on the process at this 
time was a provision to prevent interference with the slavery com¬ 
promise so painfully agreed to earlier. Sherman later won a proviso 
to protect equality of state suffrage in the Senate. Randolph sought 
in vain to authorize a second convention before the new government 
went into effect to consider amendments the states might offer during 
the ratification process. 

The convention adjourned on September 10 to await the report of 
the committee of style and met again the next day, but the report 
was not ready so another adjournment occurred. The following day, 
the delegates reassembled, and the committee submitted its draft, 
which was read and sent to the printer. All that remained was to 
compare the work of the committee with the amended draft given 
to it and make final corrections. 

During the printing process, the rest of the 12th was devoted to 
discussion of final modifications. By the close vote of six states to 
four, with one divided, it was decided to reduce the congressional 
margin needed to override the President’s veto from three-fourths to 
two-thirds. 

The absence of a bill of rights came up once again. Mason, author 
of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, pleaded that such a bill should 
preface the completed Constitution. Gerry of Massachusetts moved 
that a committee be appointed to prepare one. But Sherman of 
Connecticut, objecting, contended that the Constitution did not 
repeal the state bills of rights, which he felt were sufficient 
guarantees. Mason responded that the laws of the United States under 
the Constitution were to be supreme and might therefore negate state 
enactments. Despite this argument, the delegates, as a whole, seemed 
to fear that, though only a few hours might be required to write such 
a bill, weeks of debate would be needed to obtain its approval. So, 
by a vote of 10 states to none, with Massachusetts absent, a bill of 
rights was rejected. 

This proved to be the most serious mistake made during the 
convention. When debates over the ratification began, objections 
were raised everywhere to the absence of a bill of rights, and several 
states considered making their ratification contingent upon the 
speedy addition of one. They contented themselves with suggesting 
amendments, however, and the First Congress moved rapidly to 
remedy this defect. 

6 7 



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George Mason, although he had an almost perfect attendence record at the convention, refused 
to sign the Constitution. He formally stated his reasons, the first being a lack of a bill of rights, 
in “Objections to the Constitution.” 

6 8 
















L 


D 


T 


From September 13 to 13 the delegates carefully reviewed the 
finished document and made some changes, many editorial in nature. 
Some 60 copies, in pages, had been returned by the printer; it was 
the second printed version of the Constitution. Ably performing its 
assignment, the committee of style had reduced 23 articles to 7 and 
smoothed wording here and there but had made only two substantive 
modifications. 

Fatefully, but unintentionally, the opening phrase of the preamble 
had been revamped so that it spurred the cause of nationalism. The 
committee of detail’s version, approved by the Convention earlier, 
had read “We the People of the States . . and then had listed each 
of the 13 states. The committee of style had altered it to read as 
follows: “We the People of the United States. ...” The phrase “. . . in 
order to form a more perfect Union” was also added. The states were 
not specified. 

The new phrase had the effect of making it seem to appear that 
sovereignty was placed in the people of the United States rather than 
in the states. But this was not the actual reason for the change. The 
earlier version had been predicated on the assumption that all the 
states of the Confederation would need to approve the new govern¬ 
ment before it could be established and they were therefore named 
in the preamble. But, after the convention’s momentous decision to 
rely on ratification by nine states, it was not known if all the states 
would ratify. Furthermore, the delegates could hardly speak for the 
two states not present. 

The second alteration made by the committee of style was at the 
urging of King of Massachusetts. Seeking to guard property rights, it 
forbade the states from passing laws that might impair the obligation 
of contracts. 

Although the committee made only these two basic changes, the 
convention made several dozen, most of them minor clarifications or 
changes of wording. Aside from those, the delegates shifted the 
power to appoint a national treasurer from Congress to the President. 
They also prohibited the chief executive from receiving any emolu¬ 
ment except his salary from the national government. As with the 
earlier provision specifying that the treasury would pay congressmen, 
this one was designed to lessen any dependence national officials 
might have on the states of their origin. In addition, the amending 
process was revised to provide that future constitutional conventions 
might be held should two-thirds of the state legislatures so request. 

Other modifications were rejected during the last 3 days. Among 
these were Franklin’s proposal that the government should have the 
express power to build canals; Madison and Charles Pinckney’s 

6 9 



A#**? 


.jf -v ,V»4> 

-. . „ . . y <„~ 


XTTE, the People of the United States, in order to form 

" * a more perfect union, ro dlabii(It juftice, infurc domeUk tranquility, provide 
for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and feeure the hUdlings 
of liberty to oarfelves and our poRerity, do ordain and cAabUdi this CordlitmIon (<■■? the 
United States of America* 


A R T I C L K T. 

Sect* i. ALL kgiflative powers herein granted (hall be veiled in a Control's of the United 
States* which (hall confift of a Senate and Houfe of Reprcfentativcs, 

Seth a. The Houfe of Rcprcfcntative* (frail be compofcd of member--; chofen every fee; ; i year 
by the people of thefevcral flares, and the. clef tor* in each Hate (hail have the qualifications requi¬ 
site for eiedors of the njoft numerous branch of the (late Icgiflature. 

No perfon (hall be a reprefemative who (hall net have attained tothc 3gcof twauy-five years an i 
been ieven years a citizen of the United States, and who Hull not, when elected, be an inhabitant 
of that Rate in which be (hall be chofen. 

Rcprefcniarives and direct taxes (hall be apportioned among the fevcral Hates which may be in¬ 
cluded within this Uaion,accordiog to their refpedivc numbers* which (hall be determined by ad - 
ing to the whole number of free perfons, including thole bound to fervitude for a term of year.-, 
and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other perfon?. The actual cinimeraiion fliall 
be made within three years after the firft meeting of the Coogrcfs cf the United States, and within 
every fubfequent term of ten Years, in fuch manner as they ihali by law direct. The number oi 
teprefentatives (hah not exceedone for every forty tboufand, but each (late fliall have «u lead one 
representative ; and until fuch enumeration (hall be made, the Hate of Ncw-liampllfire (hall be en¬ 
titled to chufe three, Maflachufetts eight* Rhode-bland and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut 
five. New-York fix, New-jerfey four, Pcnnfylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland bx, Virginia 
ten, North-Carolma five, South-Carollna five, and Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the reprefentation from any date, the Executive authority thereof 
fliall iffue writs of election to fill fuch vacancies. 

<*> The Iloufe of Rcprdcntative* (hail ckoofc their Speaker and other officers; and they (hall have 
< the foie power of impeachment. 

Se&* 3. The Senate of the United States (hall be compofed of two fena tor shorn ta; h Hate, ci.o- 
fen by the Icglflature thereof, for fix years; and each fenater fliall have one vote. 

.w,Jmrpediatcly after they (hall be a (fern bled in confequer.ee of the full election, they (lull be divi¬ 
ded, las equally as may be into three claffes. The feats of the fenators of the fu ll clab (hull be vac«i- 
ted at the expiration efthe fccond year, of the fccomi c.laf- at the expiration t*l the fourth 5 . 0 . and 
of the third dafs at the expiration of the fixth year, fo that one--third may be chofen every feci.-r.-d 
year; md if vacancies happen by rdig nation, or echerwife, during the rcccfs ol the Lev nature of 
any (late, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the ne xt meeting of ih. 
Legiflaturc. 

>* No perfon (hah be a fen at or who {hall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine 
years a citizen of the United States, and who ihali not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that (late 
for which he fhall be chofen* 

* The Vice-Prclident of the United States fliall be, ofiie k , Ercfident of the fcr.atc, but (hall 

have no vote, unlcfs they be equally divided. 

j ;*i The Senate (hall choolc their other oflicers, and nlfo a Prefldent pro tempore, in the abfcncc of 

the Viec-Prefident, or when he (ball excrcife the office oi Prcfidcutof the United States. 

>€i The Senate fliall have the foie power to try all impeachments. When fitting for that pmnofc, 
they (lull be on oath. When the Prrfldcnt of the United States is tried, the Chief J office fliail 
j preiide: And no perfon Ihali be cor.vi&ed without the concurrence of two thirds of the members 

prefent. 

if*Judgment ?n cafes oftmpeachmcnt (hall not extend further than to removal from office, and dif- 
qualilication to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trail or profit under the United States: but the 
party convicted fliall r.cveribdcfs be liable and (abject to indictment, trial, judgment and punUh- 
nicnt, according to law. 

Scfl. 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for femtors and representative?, (hall 
be preferibed in each Stale by the legiftature thereof: but the Congress may at any time by law make 
or alter fuch regulations. 

■*f The Congrefs fliall afi’cmblcat leaSt once in every year, and fuch meeting (hail be cm the firft Mon¬ 
day in December, unlei’s they ihali by law appoint a different day. 

Set ?. 5. Each houfe Ihali be the judge of the elections, returns and qualification* of it* own mem¬ 
bers, and a majority of each (hall conltitute a quorum to do bufinds; but a (mailer number may 
adjourn from day to day, ami may be authorised to compel the attendance of abfcm members, in 
fuch manner, and under fuch penalties as each houfe may provide. 

f*f Each houfe may determine the rules of its proceeding*; punish its members lor difordcrlv beha¬ 
viour, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member. 

Each houfe fliall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publifli the lame, ex¬ 
cepting fuch parts as may in their judgment require fecrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members 
of either houfe on any qudlion fliuli, at the delire of one*fifth of thofc prefcni, be entered on the 
journal. 

."•'Neither houfe, during the feflton of Congrefs, (hall, without the eonfent of the other, adjourn 
for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which the two houfe* (hall be fitting. 
?u * * >'■ ** The fen at or s and reprdentatives fliall receive a compcnfation for their Cervices, to be 

afeertained bv law, and paid out of thetreafury of the United States. They fliall in all cafes, ex¬ 
cept treafon, (clony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arreflt during their attendance at 
the(dfioii o( their rrfpectivc houfes, and in going to and returning from the fame; and for any 
fpeechor debate in either bottle, they (hall not be quellioncd in any other place, 
v A . Ha No senator or reprefentative fliall. during the time tor which be was elected, be appointed 10 

* l <»«Y civil office under the autftorky outfit Uuited States, which fliall have been created, or the emo¬ 

luments 


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; 9 


n. 











V v' i 


James Madison’s annotated copy of the first page of the committee of style printing of the 
Constitution. The second printed version, it was received from Dunlap & Claypoole on 
September 13, 1787. 

7 0 



















the final draft 


suggestion that it be empowered to establish a national university; 
an effort to reinsert a two-thirds vote requirement for the passage of 
navigation laws; and Madison’s recommendation that the government 
have the power to incorporate businesses for the purpose of support¬ 
ing internal improvements. An attempt to insert the principle of the 
freedom of the press was set aside as unnecessary. Randolph repeated 
his call for a second constitutional convention to consider amend¬ 
ments that might be offered by the states, but he met deaf ears. 

Late in the afternoon of Saturday, September 15, the states voted 
unanimously to accept the Constitution, directed the printer to make 
the appropriate revisions in the type that had been set on September 
13, and ordered the engrossing of the finished product. 

Late Saturday evening or Sunday it was undoubtedly Secretary 
Jackson who obtained the engrossing services of Jacob Shallus, assis¬ 
tant clerk of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, which had been 
meeting since September 4 in the room above that used by the 
convention. Shallus was apparently provided with a corrected copy 
of the report of the committee of style and a revised text of the last 
two articles (dealing with ratification) of the report of the committee 
of detail. These two articles appeared as the fifth, or last, page 
(“resolution of transmittal” or the “ratification notice”) of the Con¬ 
stitution. Shallus worked hurriedly over the remaining part of the 
weekend and apparently received $30 for his effort. Possibly some 
unidentified person prepared the decorative lettering “We the 
People” and the numbered “Article” heads. 

ON Monday, September 17, the convention reconvened for the sign¬ 
ing. That morning, 41 of the 55 delegates who had participated were 
present. After someone, probably Secretary Jackson, read the docu¬ 
ment aloud, Franklin obtained permission to speak. Because of his 
infirmity, however, Wilson read his speech for him. It sought to 
conciliate the delegates and unite them all in signing the instrument. 
Franklin admitted he did not approve of several parts of it but averred 
that in the fullness of time he might come to favor them. In any case, 
no one would be completely satisfied and the document was the best 
that could be achieved. Furthermore, the public good required its 
acceptance. 

At the end of his speech, Franklin offered a motion, conceived by 
Gouverneur Morris, that was intended to cajole some dissenting 
members to sign—on behalf of their states, not as individuals. For this 
purpose, the resolution suggested the following wording for the 
closing block of the Constitution: “Done in Convention by the 
unanimous consent of the States present the seventeenth day of 

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Secretary Jackson’s official record of the last day’s voting. 

7 2 















































































THE final draft 


September. ...” Before the vote could be taken, Gorham moved that 
the stipulation providing for representation in the House not to 
exceed one representative for each 40,000 inhabitants be changed to 
one for each 30,000. King and Carroll offered seconds. Washington 
rose to give his only speech of the convention, in favor of Gorham’s 
proposal, which passed unanimously. 

Attention was again turned to Franklin’s resolution. But, prior to 
the vote, one final bit of debate occurred. Randolph and Gerry 
reiterated their objections to the Constitution and explained they 
would refuse to sign it, as they and Mason had done in the previous 
session. Blount said he, too, opposed much of the document, but 
would underwrite it to demonstrate the unanimity of the states. After 
various other delegates gave their opinion on the subject, Franklin’s 
motion passed by a vote of 10 states to none, with South Carolina 
divided. King moved to destroy the convention’s papers or to deposit 
them with its president; the convention voted to turn them over to 
Washington for safekeeping until Congress ordered their disposition. 

About this time, Shallus, who likely was waiting outside the room, 
engrossed the closing block, probably before the signing though it 
is possible he did so afterward. To the left of the block, he also 
inscribed an errata statement, which included reference to the change 
from 40,000 to 30,000 inhabitants and three minor changes or inter¬ 
lineations. One of the latter (an interlineated “the”) referred to the 
wrong lines; and other interlineated “the,” between lines 31 and 52 
of the second page, was not incorporated in the errata statement. 

Sometime during the afternoon the signing began. All present 
except Randolph, Mason, and Gerry, or a total of 38 men, affixed their 
signatures. Accounting for the 39th name, Read signed at the behest 
of fellow Delawarean Dickinson, who had left the convention early 
because of illness. Washington, as the president of the meeting and 
delegate from Virginia, penned his name first, at the bottom of the 
fourth page of text. He was followed by the other delegates in the 
standard congressional voting order, by state generally from north to 
south: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hamilton from 
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The names were ar¬ 
ranged in two columns, the right-hand one being filled out first. 

The signature of Hamilton, who also wrote the state names to the 
left of the block of each delegation as it signed, was misleading for 
it tended to give the impression that 12 instead of 11 states had 
approved the document. He was the only delegate from New York 
present, in an unofficial capacity, and he did not represent a quorum 
of his delegation as convention procedures required. 

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HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Near the end of the signing, Franklin observed to nearby col¬ 
leagues that he had noticed a sun and its rays were represented on 
the back of the president’s chair. Throughout the vicissitudes of the 
convention, he said he had been unable to tell whether it was a rising 
or setting sun. But now, with the signing of the Constitution, he 
declared “I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a 
setting Sun.” 

The signing completed, about 4 p.m. the convention adjourned 
sine die, or indefinitely. The delegates walked over to the City Tavern 
for a final dinner and farewells. The question of public response to 
their work now became the leading issue in the nation. 

The Approved Document 

The Constitution—which ultimately emerged from the crucible of 
debate and conflicting interests—was a bundle of compromises and 
an imperfect instrument. Of the 39 delegates who subscribed to it, 
few expressed complete satisfaction with their work. And some even 
doubted it would endure. The public was even less sanguine. The 
advocates of the instrument labored for nearly a year before enough 
states ratified it and made it the law of the land. Yet, once the 
document went into effect, it soon became the pride and bulwark of 
the republic. 

In most respects, the Constitution sprang from the American 
colonial, Revolutionary, and Confederation experiences. For example, 
the idea that a nation was bound by a constitution that limited and 
defined the powers of government had long been part of the English 
political consciousness. But, beginning with the colonial charters, 
Americans preferred written constitutions, which both citizens and 
officials could refer to for guidance. Liberties were not to be trusted 
to the benevolence of rulers, and the discretion of magistrates and 
legislators was to be restricted to fixed principles. Government was 
regarded as a necessary evil that needed to be circumscribed. 

In other words, the basic institutions of constitutionalism were 
being established long before the War for Independence and the 
drafting of the first state constitutions (1775-80), the Articles of 
Confederation (1778), and federal Constitution (1787). These institu¬ 
tions were reflected in the royal charters, concessions by the king 
and royal proprietors, and legislative acts initiated by the people’s 
representatives. All these recognized the basic importance of personal 
liberties in written form. 

The system of checks and balances, which the framers utilized to 
prevent the dominance of any one branch of the government over 
any other and to maintain stability between the states and the national 

7 6 



We have the heart-felt pleafure 
to inform our fellow citizens that 
the Faderal Convention adjourn¬ 
ed yefterday, having completed 
the objedt of their deliberations— 
And we hear that Major W. Jack- 
fon, the fecretary of that honora¬ 
ble body, leaves this city for New- 
York, this morning, in order to 
lay the great refult of their proceed¬ 
ings before the United States in 
Congrefs. 

A c.Ht dent express hi* concern, that any 
proportion Ihould have been made in the genera) a(- 
I . > v>r opening and prolonging the time for otfi* 

c *$ and toldkr* to draw their donation lands beyond 
t\e F. nr. *d»mxd by law; he fears it will make many 
li cit application, on account of the advance they 
rt v.A make fur the Ltrveying fees—and at bit be thut 
c *r for •’trtahiiy the mealure will never be adopted 
l. the U>» difuie, as the lame principle would unquef- 
ton*b*y go to open again the door to the account* tor 
f.cpm'ianon, and other numerous claim* upon the 
public, which arc bar ted and excluded by thi* fla;e v 
ao lhy the United Slate* 

A Mew. vinto Print of His Excellency GENERAL 
WASHINGTON, done by Charlks WitroK Plalc 
of p. ; adviphia, f >m a portrait which he has painted 
h o c the f ting uf the Convention is now compleated : 
r^c iikeoefs »s efieemenl the bett that has been execute I 
i . a print.-——Thi* is one of an intended (cries of 
P .»«. to Nr taken from Mr. Pcale's colkcYon of por- 
trai* of iduttri «»* per funs, diftingiikhed in the late 
!*:v- jiuli m. Thofe of His Excellency Doctor Fran kilo 
fcid the honorable the Marquis dc la l ayette, have 
been already pubhlhcd. 

l“he price of theic prints, in a neat oval frame, (the 
inner frame gilt} it two dollars each, or »nc dollar 
lot the p in: only : and a large xUowaote will he 
mode t-> t* ?>*e who purchafe o fell aga.n —Apply t« 
Ci ,; Ui W. Pe.de, at the corner uf (bird and Lombard 
(fleets, Fivilad:Iphia. 

* 1 \u •»('. ier$ in the feveraj (late*, who are <Mi» 

»ng <be hoc aits in Amenta, arc re*' 
qt: f de 1 to pis ; dh ibis as an article of interHtyrnre ; 
w ; h will oblige the numerous friend* «<f the General. 

i be (Lie* of Holland and Welt Frig (land have, in 
8 -‘f.ur to the baron dc Thoiemcycf, mWiittcr to the 
Jctttgof Pr» Ei i, declared, that they, as tmeudg!* of the 
pr .in<e, always (liquid for the good of thcr coun¬ 
try, bud make no alteration* in any of their rchrfuH- 
oU. i»y paying regard to the threats or in treaties of 
a »y fore! so powte* whaifoevtr. 

r v private letters from Hoi and, dated July 13, 
I-?7, we art informed, “ that proportions are ps«- 
Jcu-ted to dihe ent towns and provinces to re cilabhfh 
\i c old eonftflution (b far tfat the fovercigas In every 
province thaU ei Pe officer* for the feaand land fewices 
a id never to let an upper admiral or general over t hem, 
h n »<;t-rc d .puties wiii be appointed with the feeret or* 
<|< r* of tbefcmteign hi tii- (Lets and in the armies-* 
a;v> the g< veroment in the feveral towns to he chofcO 
f>y • c votes of the citizen* and the Gildens, which arc 
t’»c fncietieaof tradefmen of every At nomination. At 
t e Line thug these (ball he a general cnnyrHs to reiAU 
fy he as ii d crept from time to time into the d sTercut 
p;i?s of government., when wit hour pars ► the <dl- 
fp'kigo?ancient lamilies will hechof. n. It i»«ey by tb<ir 
a ■■id: ic* an 1 good conduff defer ve it; and other *tor 
t ir c.tes though of foreign extraction, provided 
jo y have had their rdidencc in the country the time 
u ; ; Lw »equi*es # will wuh equal impartiality 

b .ed. (hus rhe (fates will w'nhout mediation of 
f • ^.v-rs, fettle the r differtficca by their ft a and land 
f : v:U i.htsr command of n»*>«cy, whi h is wry 

p!-e-erly called the nerve* of a long war, and the fee- 
, fai mean* of ioduc'mg every German to engage with 
in the fc«vice of tlofc patriot*, who will h r them 
i x mple in fighting in the glorious caufe of liberty, 
a< ii rf: ita «:f majefl y arid miniflers ex pet kneed n the 
1 ar when hey wtre pa : d a- d hired to ferve tyran- 

i % and oppuffion, but after a;.: d* (hewed Inch ftmd 
e |.tr iiheity by their defettinn and flying at vticc 
('«>;» f r.-ldh ftrrke arid German Puivcry. 1 'bo# will 
the rep *>Hc o ; Ne h*»-lan4 ('or «hc r pi. f{ troy ha* A- 
\s y ... taxn envied by natiou* .ud fein'j settle- their own 
f a d eiiaMilh ihur libeiiy and iiidtpuiJc:tcw vtn 
u thlid fouiid *lion. 

•/ The Amcti.an PhiSofophkal Society will Vo\A 

a (g ckl a.t ...uig i his I.veniug, t «c loth in it ahoot 
4 t ;ht h :iiin of !vs cxceihnu.y i)i Ha»Uo , 

'j*h hu'iorf* i-.quhes a rencraJ aitcndar.ee of me«»htrs# 
id. oamoh. Macaw, oc-wictary. 



J>2SS»* 


XJnivtrfity of Pcntifylvanidy 

Auwut ao. rySy. 

The Medical Lectures 

will hev»in on the fjrfl Monday of NovemSer. 

Robert Bafs, 

H^s this clay imported in the 

Harmony, Captain Willct, from London, a 
finall Cate of pure, genuine 

Red Peruvian Bark. 

He will receive by she next veffol from London, a 
full fupply of frtlh Drug*, Medicines, and Shop Fur* 
niture, to compleat his allot tment till next fpring. 

Sept. iS _ c«tf 

To be Seen near the nerv Chapel^ 

A young Kitten, 

Of the brutal creation ; the head and (houidcr* like a 
cat, the hind parts like a rabbet, and ha* two tails. 
Children one penny, almoit grown children Z-L gen¬ 
tlemen and Indies what they plea ft* 17 r 

For Norfolk, 

( Virginia) 

The S hooper E L EANOR, 

John Bur&e* Mafter » 

TO fail in five day*. For freight or pjflagc apply to 
the Matter on board, at Fi(her** wharf, or to 
Sept rt 5§> D EAVES, RAKt.K & A8b.Lt. _ 

FIRST NOTICE. 

In the Cafe of fofepb Deane , 

8 A N k HUH T. 

W HER E AS a comaiittion of bankiupt is award¬ 
ed and iflucd forth againtt 7 tfiph Diane, of tlie 
city of Philadelphia, merchant; and he being decLr 
r.d a bankrupt, is hereby required to furrendcr Mm* 
f*lf to the commUH-oners in the faid cornaiiiThm nam* 
cd, or the major part of them, on Tntfdjv the l8th 
day of September *»fK on 7 l*tf<lay the rtth day of 
Od)Sv-f following, and on Monday the 19th day of 
the f-me mouth,atlOahrh’Ck in «(»c forenoon of each 
of ?h laid days, at the State-houfc in the city of Phh 
I idclphia, and make a full diftovory and difclofurcof his 
cttztc and cffc<ttt ; when and where the creditors arc to 
come prepared to prove there debts: at the fecond 
meeting tochufc affiances; and at the fad meeting the 
(aid bankrupt i* required to finilb bis examination. 

Alt pedbtt* indented to the laid bankrupt, or who 
have any of his effects, are not to pay or deliver the 
fame but to whom the commf&oiier* (ball appoint, but 
give notice to the iuhfcnbcr. 

By Order of the ComnahTioners, 

JOHN JENNINGS, Cletk. 
O ffice, in Watkins's alley. Sept 17 iySy. x8 8.it 

T^IOSE gentlemen who are ap- 

pointed to receive fubfcripiions for the encou¬ 
ragement o f American manufacture*, arc requetted to 
co tie iff the money luhfcribed, and to pay whatfoevtr 
monies they n ay have received, into the hands of 
John N;xon, efquifc, trcafurcr. a* fooa a* poffiblc. 

By diicGion of the Board. 

GEO FOX, SccVy. 

For LONDON, 

The Ship HARMONY, 
___ John fVUlttt, Mqfter ; 

FOR imgu or pattage apply to the Commaoicr on 
board at Mcafe’s wharf, or to 

Sept 1 5 d MGR D EC A l LEWIS Jk C 0 _ 

Irifli Linens, 

J«tt arrived in the Harmony and Pi gun from London, 
aud for SAL E by 

Rojs and Vaughan . 

^ Ai.-rnKf’ *C -* 



Ib.t Oan is i* 0 i> i- i a ii t. 

Prichard & Hall, 

And to be h*d at Prichard** Book.Store tnd Ci»<uLt> 
ing Library, in Market ttrect, 

( Scatly ba*f<d and frttz'cd—ir.i t 3 / 9 ) 

ALGERINE SPY 

In Pcnnfylvanb: 

R “■?.? *he epittoLry - :rf»cc between Mehc^et, 

th - it iUtatf fiom the fuhume Por;c, rclideot m 


A Philadelphia newspaper’s 


account of the adjournment of the convention. 































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Constitution of the United States 











THE 


APPROVED 


DOCUMENT 


government, was traceable to the ideas of the French political theorist 
Baron de Montesquieu and to the English conception that a bal¬ 
ance of power among the king, the aristocracy, and the House of 
Commons prevented the undue ascendancy of any one group or 
majority. Also affecting the Constitution were other aspects of English 
law and thought, especially the ideas of John Locke. Included among 
those was the belief of apostles of the Enlightenment that natural 
laws governed man as well as the universe. Various additional 
European influences and Greek and Roman political concepts also 
made their mark on the Constitution. 

Within that framework, however, the instrument was the product 
of a body of men who were experienced in self-government and were 
practical politicians. Confronting a definite and unique situation, for 
the most part they shunned abstract political speculation, though they 
drew on the lessons of history and political theroy. Principle, ex¬ 
pedience, and compromise all played roles, and their interplay was 
incredibly complex. A new frame of government was created that in 
its totality embodied much that was unprecedented and that has 
served as a model for constitutions since established by various other 
countries. 

Considering all the difficulties they encountered in fashioning the 
Constitution, its makers could not conceivably have covered all basic 
topics or treated those they did cover without ambiguity. In many 
cases, the ambiguity was deliberate to prevent further disagreement 
in the convention. 

Above all, the framers could not be expected to be visionary 
enough to foresee and address all major matters that might be of 
future concern to the United States, especially subsequent political, 
economic, and social complexities. Many questions were left to be 
arbitrated and answered over the course of time. For example, the 
founders did not furnish mechanisms for the acquisition of new 
territory, establish specific terms for the admission of new states, 
specify the number of judges who would sit on the Supreme Court, 
or indicate what major departments should be created. While the 
framers extended the powers of Congress by specific grants to the 
maximum degree they felt was safe, by means of the elastic “general 
welfare” and “necessary and proper” clauses they made possible 
augmentation of the enumerated powers of Congress. The broad 
definition of presidential responsibilities has also allowed a similar 
amplification. To provide for reform, omissions, unforeseen factors, 
and changes, the Founding Fathers offered a system of amendments. 

Other revisions or additions have been made by legislation or 
custom—in the “Unwritten Constitution.” This includes such elements 

8 3 



HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 


as the power of the Supreme Court to decide on the constitutionality 
of federal and state laws, a practice implied in the Constitution but 
originated by Chief Justice John Marshall, and the establishment of 
the presidential cabinet, a group of advisers made up of the heads 


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Writing to Thomas Jefferson from London, John Adams praised the results of the convention 
but acknowledged the need for amendments. 

8 4 










THE 


APPROVED 


DOCUMENT 


of executive departments. The 22d amendment, which prohibits the 
President from serving more than two terms, is an example of a 
custom once part of the unwritten Constitution that has been incor¬ 
porated into the document. 

This elasticity, or capacity for expansion, while making it certain 
that interpretation of the Constitution would generate disputation 
over the years, has at the same time allowed it to adjust to changing 
circumstances and endure throughout the decades. 

During that time, the instrument, one of the oldest written charters 
of government, has won the laudation of the world. British Prime 
Minister William Gladstone effusively called it the “most wonderful 
work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of 
man.” William Pitt, the younger, who had occupied the same office, 
said the document would be the “pattern for all future constitutions 
and the admiration of all future ages.” But signer Robert Morris 
provided a more realistic appraisal: “While some have boasted [the 
Constitution] as a work from Heaven, others have given it a less 
righteous origin. I have many reasons to believe that it is the work 
of plain, honest men, and such, I think, it will appear.” 

WORKING late on the night of September 17 and possibly into the 
morning hours to make the final revisions in the type he had been 
holding since September 13, the printer had available for Secretary 
Jackson on the morning of the 18th a large quantity, apparently 500, 
of official 6-page copies of the Constitution. For about a day, this 
version, which contained one error (1708 instead of 1808 in Article 
V), was the only printed one. 

Secretary Jackson departed on the morning of the 18th for New 
York, where he arrived the next afternoon. The following day, he 
transmitted to Secretary Charles Thomson of the Continental Congress 
the engrossed copy of the Constitution; the accompanying docu¬ 
ments, including George Washington’s letter of transmittal; and, un¬ 
doubtedly, the official printed copies. That same day, the engrossed 
or one of the printed copies was read to Congress, but it took no 
action and set the 26th as the day on which the instrument would 
be considered. 

Meantime, the Constitution had apparently been read to the public 
for the first time, and the Philadelphia newspapers had been busy. 
At the September 18 meeting of the Pennsylvania assembly, in the 
east room on the second floor of Independence Hall, Speaker 
Thomas Mifflin read it before the legislators and numerous spectators. 
Although no copies have survived, possibly the Evening Chronicle 
published the document on Tuesday evening, September 18. All other 

8 5 




H 


S T O R I C A L 


BACKGROUND 


five newspapers in the city definitely did the next day. Only the 
version in Dunlap & Claypoole’s Pennsylvania Packet contained a 
“pure” text, for it included the 1708 error. All the other four renditions 
corrected this mistake and by error or design made additional 
changes, including those in abbreviation, spelling, and punctuation. 

From these have stemmed a proliferation of printings, both in the 
United States and abroad, that have continued right up to the present 
day—in newspapers, magazines, broadsides, pamphlets, handbills, 
leaflets, almanacs, and books. 

Ratification: Federalists vs. Antifederalists 

In Article VII and in the fifth-page “resolution of transmittal” to the 
Continental Congress, the convention provided a procedure for mak¬ 
ing the Constitution the law of the land. Each state would call a 
convention, whose delegates would be elected by the voters. After 
nine of these groups ratified, the new government could begin 
operation. 

On September 26, 1787, the Continental Congress, including 10 or 
12 men who had been in attendance at Philadelphia, began consider¬ 
ing the document. A vociferous minority of members raised numerous 
objections during 2 days of debate. They charged that the instrument 
was too sweeping and clearly exceeded the amendment of the 
Articles of Confederation that had been authorized, criticized omis¬ 
sion of a bill of rights, and attacked various details. It was even 
proposed that a series of amendments be attached to the Constitution 
before it was submitted to the states. But on September 28 supporters 
and critics of adoption compromised on a noncommittal forwarding 
of the new governmental framework without change to the state 
legislatures, which were to set up the conventions. The copies sent 
to the states were apparently from a new printing that John Dunlap 
had subcontracted to John McLean (M’Lean), a New York City 
newspaper publisher. 

DURING the yearlong political struggle that ensued in the states before 
the establishment of the new government, two distinct factions 
emerged. The advocates of the Constitution adopted the name 
“Federalists” and cleverly pinned on their opponents the label “Anti¬ 
federalists,” which had formerly described those who had fought 
against formation of the Confederation. Realizing that the “Anti” 
prefix placed them in the role of obstructionists and that they had 
no positive plan of their own to offer, the Antifederalists not only 
used the name reluctantly but also often tried to reject it and to 
transfer it to the Federalists, whom they claimed better deserved it. 

8 6 





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Sffr *« ALL powers hr rein granted (hall he veiled in a Congirfe of the United 

Sines which Ihall enufift uf u Senate and Houfe of Heptclniusivet. 

i. The Houle <»? Reprcfentat'»v<** that? he coropokd of member? caoirn every feroncf yr#r 
by the people of the Icvrral flute*, and the defter* in each date fftaH have the qualification* rrq«j. 
fire for tI clot* ol the molt nurarrum branch c? the tlatc lep'Hatu e. 

No peribn dull hr a representative who Ihall no? have aliened tothr ageof twrtsy fiveyearsand 
been (evert year? & utuen of the United State?, ami who (hail not, when elected, be an inhabitant 
of that (Lite'in which he hull l* chofea. 

Reprcfemamr* and direct taxes Shall be apportioned among the fevcial ibtes which may be 'in¬ 
cluded within this Union, according to their refjH'Cure number*, which ffiidlbe determined by add¬ 
ing to the whole number of free pcrlcns, including tmtic bound to feme* for a rrrm of \ 'ear*, 
and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifth* of ail other perfons. The actual enumeration (halt 
be made within three year; after the fjrtl meeting of the Congref* of the United Starts*, and within 
every lubfeqnent term of ten years, in inch manner as they ihall by law direct. The number of 
rept client attves Stall not exceed one ior every thirty tbimiand, but each gate fh.ii! have a? fea&unc 
rrprclcntalive ; and unlit" fuel* enumeration (hall be made, the flute of New-Hampffifcc fball be co¬ 
te, led to clusfe three, Matfachufetts eight, Rhode-bland and Providence Plantations one, Corine&tey* 
five, New-York fix, New-lctfey tour, Pcnnlyfvama eight, Delaware one, Maryland fix, Virginia 
ten, North-Carolina five, SoutlvCarolina live, and Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the reprefcotal.on from any date, the Executive authority thereof 
Hull itfue writs ol eicfuon to nil fueh vacancies. 

The Houfe of Kcprcfcnutives Ihall chulc their Speak tv and other officers ; and ftail have die 
lolc power of impeachment. 

Sf!. t,„ The Senate of the United State* Qtall be eompotVd of two fenator* from each date, eho- 
fen by the legitlarure thereof, for fix year*; and each senator grail have one vote. 

Immediately after they Ihall be afibmbled in confequmcc of the hrll election, thev IhaH be divi¬ 
ded at equally a* may Ire into ihree claries. The feats of the fcruitor* of the fir It clals grail be vaca¬ 
ted at the expiration of the Iccowl year, of the second data at the expiration of ibc fourth year, and 
ol the third claU at the expiration of the fixth year, fo that one-third may be choten every ieevml 
year , and if vacancies happen by rehgnation, or other wife. during the recct* of the l-egiftatnre of 
any gate, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointinent# until the next: meeting of the 
LcgifUture, which fha.ll then fill fudr vacancies. 

No perton ihalf fw: a tenaror who (hall not have attained to the age of thirty year*, ami been nine 
years a citizen of the United States, and who ihallnot, when defied, be an inhabitant of that Rate 
for which lie fball be chofen- 

The Yiee-Prefidcnt of the United State* &a!l be Ptctident of the fenate, but IhaM have no vote, 
unleu they be equally divided. 

The Senate Rsall chute theft *xher officer*, and al(i> a Prefident pro tempore, in the abfencc of 
the Vice-Prelktent, or when be Ihall excrctfc tire ofiiceof Prcfidcnt of tire United State*. 

The Senate flndl have the foie power ro try all impeachment*. When fitting for that purpofe, 
they lhall be on oath or affirmation. When the Prefedfctw of the United States is tried, the Chief 
Mtiec fitafi preside: And no per km Ihall be cuttviefed without the concurrence ol two thud* of 
the member* prefeot. 

Judgment n cafes ol impeachment grail not extend further than to removal trom office, and tlif- 
qualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trufl or profit undet the United Kiaies; but the 
party eenvieied ffiall nevefthehri* be liable and lob^cel r» indictment, trial, judgment and putoiu- 

atent, according 10 law. 

Secs. 4 T betimes, p-’aces and manner of h<>luing deCftocs for fenator* and reprefenfariver, fhjti 
be pre!ci*> d m each Hate by the teg'*iiat««* thereof; hut the Congreh may at any time by law imkz 
cr alter fueh regulations rxerpt »» to the place* of chuhng hena?ors. 

Thcl.'ongrcL Shall affirmblcat icafi, once mi every year,god fueh meeting (hail beon tive firO Mon¬ 
day in lh-ceinber, unltfe they lhall by law apjroiat a different day. 

,Vrc/. 5. Each houfe ffiali be the judge of the. elections, return* and qunh&eatier.* of iti own mem- 
?>er., and 1 majority of each ihall conllttute a quorum to do bufinefej bat a fra alter number rniv 
adjourn from day to day, and may be authonfed io compel the attendance of ablem member*, in 
Inch manner, and under fueh penalties a* each houfe may provide. 

l.a»:h lioufe may determine the rule* of it* proceedings, punnh it* member* ior diforderly bciu- 
nr, and, with the concurrcnre of two-thirds, expel a member, 

Lada iroufe IhaU keep a journal of it* proceedings, and from tnr.c to time publifit the fame, ex- 
cr*?* it»g fetch jxntsa* may in their judgment require fecrccy ; and the yen* and my* of the hu : nbir* 
coher imtife on any quefiion lhall, at the defirc of one- filth of thofe prdctii, be entered on the 

Minvit. 

Neither hmifc\ unring the iethon of Congrefs, Ihall, without the cement ■>* ihe other, adjourn 
; :f mure t tun tkxce day*, no# to any other place than that in which the two houie* lhail he fitting. 

S'-L 6 . d hr (coat >t* and reprek itutives ihall receive a eompenutton h« their fervim, tti Lit 
aicr.r.aincd by law, ara.i paid out ol the trrafury of the United Stair*. They gull in all cafes ex¬ 
cept treafon, felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrrit during thdr attendance ,sc 
the h i ion ol their respective houle?, and to going to 2nd returning horn the feme, and ior *iiy 
tprv.h nr debate tri either houle, they lhall not be quefboneci in any other place. 

No »cna= >r or reprelewadve ihab, during the time for which hr wa* elected, be a-qrointed ro 
any civd olftet under ihr authority of the Uatted Aa?e«, wlkich dull have becu c reated, or ti ^ euw- 
htmem* whereof iha’l have l>rea ^pereafed during fueh time; and no yerfm boiffiug any otikt u*»- 
.ier the Unhed .States 13 »tR be a member of either hwfe during hiscotMinuance in e. 
s' *. -s All bids for rain a? revenue ih.til originate in the Itoulir oi repreien;3;ive* ; but the fen.-.te 


m: v ; Ajrue ox cottcttr wi«H-amendment* a* r>*» other bii?*. 

i bill u hic.h ffiali h. vepjsffiM the boufeof fepteferitattYe* wtd tb" fenate, Ih . 51 , h-fo-Ube 
>■_*) ■ % ;aw, be p< femrd t ; the weiufe- of the Isinni Mate*', it h *ppr >vc he <had - « v. 

it u i 'hall return it, with I;;.. ob. * houle in w hb u IhAl have orhiinated, vtk 

'Mrw i the t^jrffiWii .it large era 1 jmir.aL ;;rd pfueeed to rrai-mfeiler tt. Ittiitv; v.u h rr 
tid.'ration two-thirds of thm hou-fe ffiall agree, o pafs the Gil, U ibJibe knt y together wiA ih 
r . - •: , u, dm o’hrr houfe. bv which it ffiafi hkee lie be ft A- feted, and if approval by < v.;: 

third; ri 1 hi! houle, It ffnM bccatrc a l:»w. But »a all fueh therufer J hotife ih: 







One of the first newspaper printings of the Constitution. It appeared in the Pennsylvania 
Packet, published by Dunlap & Claypoole, who were also the official printers for the 
convention. 


8 7 












H I S T O R 


CAL 


BACKGROUND 


With good reason. The so-called Antifederalists were not really 
opposed to a federation; and many of them, especially those who 
advocated immediate amendment of the Constitution, believed they 
were the true defenders of the federal system. Most of them favored 
preservation of the Confederation. One of their strongest objections 
to the Constitution was that, in their minds, it established a national 
rather than a federal government. For these reasons, they made a vain 
attempt to claim the Federalist name, which they sometimes even 
employed in the titles of their tracts or in the pseudonyms they 
frequently attached to them. 

Thus, the two terms are grossly misleading. The Federalists might 
more aptly have been called “Centralists” or “Nationalists” and the 
Antifederalists “Federalists” or “States righters.” Furthermore, despite 
the bitterness of the ratification battles, the two designations imply a 
greater degree of basic antithesis than actually existed. Both sides 
sought an effective national government and safeguards against 
tyranny, but they differed on the efficacy of specific constitutional 
provisions in achieving those goals. Use of the two labels is also 
unfortunate in that it falsely indicates a compartmentalization that was 
lacking. Within each of the two camps, a wide range and strong 
shades of opinions were manifested and some people switched 
allegiance. 

The composition of the two groups differed in practically every 
state. A host of geographical, economic, social, and political factors 
determined alignment. Although clear-cut divisions were blurred, the 
Federalists loosely encompassed those whose livelihoods were sig¬ 
nificantly linked to commerce, such as merchants, shippers, urban 
artisans, and farmers and planters residing near water transport, as 
well as members of the professions and creditors. All these groups 
were mainly concerned about the economic benefits and property 
safeguards against state actions a stronger central government would 
provide. Many of the leaders enjoyed national political experience 
and had served as officers during the War for Independence. Usually 
more worldly than their Antifederalist counterparts, many had been 
educated abroad and were more experienced in foreign affairs. 

The Antifederalists tended to be more locally oriented. They in¬ 
cluded residents of isolated villages and towns, small farmers, fron¬ 
tiersmen, and debtors. These classes usually preferred maximum 
individual and local autonomy rather than the expansion of 
governmental power. 

Exceptions to these generalizations, however, were numerous. All 
rich merchants and planters did not necessarily favor the Constitution, 
nor poor farmers and mechanics oppose it. Nor was the eastern 

8 8 



THE 


RAT 


F I C A T 


O N 


PROCESS 


seaboard totally Federalist and the West completely Antifederalist. 
Sometimes a healthy minority of divergent opinion existed among 
similar groups within a particular section of a state or region. Several 
Antifederalists were well-to-do creditors, and some Federalists were 
heavily in debt. Back-country farmers in Georgia, concerned about the 
Indian and Spanish threats, backed a powerful central government. 
Local circumstances also contributed to the Antifederalist stance of a 
number of large estate owners in the Hudson River area of New York 
State. 

The Antifederalists were as a whole probably more democratic than 
the Federalists, but many of the leaders were members of the 
aristocracy and maintained reservations about democracy; ordinarily 
only the poorer and less sophisticated Antifederalists espoused it. But 
neither side used the word “democracy” very often. When the 
Federalists did so it was usually with scorn; and, when the Anti¬ 
federalists did so, it was more likely with favor. 

The Antifederalists were saddled with numerous disadvantages. 
They were not only less well organized and united than the opposi¬ 
tion, but they were also on the defensive because they were objecting 
to a bold and comprehensive new plan of government. Many of them 
believed some changes in the Articles of Confederation were needed, 
especially in the field of commerce, but they could not effectively 
object to all those recommended in the Constitution. 

The Antifederalists also had fewer leaders of national stature. They 
included only six men who had attended the Constitutional Conven¬ 
tion: Luther Martin, John F. Mercer, Robert Yates, John Lansing, Jr., 
George Mason, and Elbridge Gerry. Only the latter two had stayed 
for its duration though they, too, had not signed the Constitution. 
Other members of the group were Richard Henry Lee and Benjamin 
Harrison of Virginia and Samuel Chase of Maryland, all signers of the 
Declaration of Independence; Gov. George Clinton of New York; and 
Patrick Henry and James Monroe of Virginia. Like Henry, Lee had 
been elected to but did not attend the convention. He chose not to 
do so because he felt it would be improper for members of the 
Continental Congress to take part. He was the author of a powerful 
statement of the Antifederalist case, Letters From the Federal Farmer 
to the Republican. 

On the other hand, in the front rank of the Federalists were 
practically all the delegates to the convention, including every one 
of the signers of the Constitution, among them such preeminent men 
as Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton; Randolph, who 
switched over from the Antifederalist side; signer of the Declaration 
Benjamin Rush; and diplomat John Jay, Jr. 

8 9 




OBSERVATIONS 

LEADING to a FAIR EXAMINATION 

6 T T B S 

SYSTEM of GOVERNMENT 

P P 0 S « D BY T H 2 t A T I 

CONVENTION; 

AND TO SEVERAL ESSENTIAL AND NECESSARY 
ALTERATIONS IN IT. 

Ill A NUMBER 0# 

LETTERS 

PROM TUB 

FEDERAL FARMER to the REPUBLICAN, 






Prints© in thi Ysa* M,&cci.xxtiA 




Title page of the original edition (1787) of Richard Henry Lee’s Letters from the Federal Farmer 
to the Republican, a leading Antifederalist tract. 




THE 


R A T I F 


CAT 


O N 


PROCESS 


The cohesive Federalists evolved a concrete program, conducted a 
vigorous and well-tuned campaign, and benefited from strong 
newspaper support. Skillfully presenting their case, they wisely chose 
to emphasize issues on which national consensus could easily be 
obtained and ignored those that would align section against section, 
rich against poor, or debtors against creditors. They also worked more 
quickly than their opponents and organized more effectively. They 
were more deft in parliamentary maneuvering at the ratifying conven¬ 
tions. The many compromises they had made in the creation of the 
Constitution made it more defensible and also more acceptable to 
various groups that might otherwise have opposed it. 

But the Federalists, too, faced several problems. They needed to 
convince the country that a totally new frame of government was 
needed. And many of those they were trying to convince were not 
sufficiently aware of the nation’s domestic and international problems 
and thus did not understand the need for and value of the remedies 
recommended. A large part of the populace, especially because of 
the recent clash with Britain, was opposed to any more change, to a 
strong central government, and to the imposition of too many con¬ 
trols on state and local governments. Then, too, these governments 
resented any augmentation of national power at their expense. 

The Federalists also faced a significant handicap in that they 
needed to win the ratification contests in at least nine of the states, 
and particularly in the large and strategic states of Virginia and New 
York, as well as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The Antifederalists, 
on the other hand, could thwart the whole effort by winning any five 
states, and probably could accomplish the same if they won in either 
New York or Virginia. 

The arguments of the Federalists and Antifederalists—voiced and 
written in speeches, letters to newspaper editors and others, tracts, 
pamphlets, and at the state conventions—ranged from the theoretical 
to the practical and from the low-keyed to the highly emotional. 
Regional, sectional, and individual differences were demonstrated. 

The Antifederalists tended to defend the Articles of Confederation, 
though they felt they needed to be modified, or advocated a weak 
central government that would allow maximum participation of the 
people and ensure state sovereignty. Most Antifederalists insisted that 
conditions were not as desperate as the Federalists painted and 
questioned the need for a drastically new government. They felt the 
Constitution was too extreme a remedy for the problems of the 
Confederation. Thus, if they could not stop ratification of the docu¬ 
ment entirely, they committed themselves to its immediate revision 
by a second convention or by amendment. 


9 1 





HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


Other fears were stressed: that many of the framers had ulterior 
motives, a charge that seemed plausible because of the secrecy of 
the convention and the rush to ratify the Constitution; that the 
proposed new government, especially with its strong executive and 
powerful Senate, would be more tyrannical than that of the British 
had been and would result in a monarchy or aristocratic rule; that, 
lacking a bill of rights, as the Constitution did, it would destroy 
personal liberties; that the checks and balances written into the 
document were insufficient to protect the rights of state and local 
governments; that power was being transferred from the many to the 
few to inhibit or prevent future political change and reform; and that 
the large states would overpower the small ones. 

Patrick Henry, who had declined to serve in the convention 
because he “smelt a rat,” began his objections with the first three 
words of the Constitution. Who, he wondered, were the delegates to 
say “We the People”? They should have said “We the States.” Other¬ 
wise, the government would no longer be a compact among equal 
states but a “consolidated, national government of the people of all 
the states.” 

Another charge was that the convention had ignored or exceeded 
its instructions from Congress to amend the Articles of Confederation, 
had abandoned their federal basis, and violated procedures for their 
amendment with the nine-state ratification requirement. The 
Federalists were also accused of having ties with foreigners and with 
being sympathetic to a monarchy. 

The Antifederalists rarely mentioned national security or foreign 
affairs. Even when they did, they did not deny Federalist arguments 
but contended that the good that might be gained in these fields by 
the Constitution would be offset by the disadvantages of such great 
central power and that amendments to the Articles of Confederation 
could bring about the necessary improvements. There would be 
enough time to provide an adequate defense once war broke out, 
and direct federal taxation could be resorted to if the old requisition¬ 
ing system on the states failed to work. 

Another point made by some Antifederalists was that a single 
government would be unable to rule a country as large and complex 
as the United States, which was far larger than any earlier federation, 
without becoming tyrannical. Regional confederations were con¬ 
sidered to be more effective. 

Some aversion to the Constitution was sectional in nature. For 
example, the southern states feared the commerce clause would 
allow the northeastern states, which owned and built most of the 
ships, to control their trade. The maritime states might obtain a 

9 2 



THE 


RATIFICATION 


PROCESS 


monopoly by securing the passage of navigation laws restricting 
commerce to American ships or of tariffs unfavorable to the South. 
It was felt, too, that the Senate might use its treaty power to surrender 
free navigation of the Mississippi, which was critically important to 
the region, as well as to the West. 

The Federalists, who asserted that the convention had followed the 
spirit of its congressional instructions, stressed the deficiencies in the 
Articles of Confederation. Viewing the Constitution as a workable 
compromise of divergent opinions and granting that it was not 
perfect, its advocates held that it was nevertheless vastly superior to 
the Articles and that subsequent amendments could purge its imper¬ 
fections. Constitutional supporters, warning that delays in ratification 
would result in disastrous disunion and that a second convention 
would likely destroy the agreements already achieved, fought for 
quick and unconditional ratification. 

Denying that the government they proposed would sweep aside 
states rights, the Federalists pointed out that all powers not specifi¬ 
cally granted to it, like the protection of individual rights, were by 
implication state prerogatives; and that under any system of govern¬ 
ment large states could usually overpower small ones but that they 
would be less likely to do so within the framework of a friendly and 
voluntary union. 

As a counter to Antifederalist charges that a federation would not 
work in such a huge country, the Federalists argued that the larger a 
federation was the less chance there would be that any of its 
members could dominate the others. Furthermore, the system 
devised at Philadelphia, they stated, was a balanced and federal 
structure in which no one institution or individual could gain undue 
dominance. It was, therefore, a judicious application of the principles 
of republicanism. 

The Federalists wisely concentrated their fire on three practical 
issues with broad appeal. The first was national security, which most 
people agreed was weak under the Articles. Under that instrument, 
advocates of the Constitution said that, though the Continental Con¬ 
gress could declare war, it could not procure enough money and 
men to wage it. Direct taxation was required in wartime to obtain 
sufficient revenue. The standing army and navy the Constitution 
authorized could protect the country from invasion, enhance its 
prestige, discourage foreign intervention, and perhaps offer an oppor¬ 
tunity to drive the British out of the posts in the Great Lakes area as 
well as to thwart Spanish designs in the Southwest. Some Federalists 
related the foreign-debt problem to national security. They held that 
the debt was a potential source of conflict and might result in attacks 

9 3 






HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 


on U.S. commerce unless Congress was assured steady revenue, as it 
would be under the Constitution. 

The second issue stressed by the Federalists was the bad economic 
situation, including the decline in shipbuilding and trade. They said 
this condition resulted primarily from the incapability of Congress to 
conclude favorable commercial treaties with other countries or to 
execute those it had negotiated. As a result, it was difficult to retaliate 
against foreign trade restrictions, especially those of the British, or to 
arrange for American instead of British ships to carry goods. 

The Federalists related both the national security and commerce 
issues to congressional ineffectiveness in meeting its treaty commit¬ 
ments. Unless Congress could help British merchants collect the 
prewar debts owed to them by Americans, the British could use that 
excuse to continue occupying the Great Lakes posts. And Britain 
would likely not agree to a commercial treaty until Congress had the 
power to speak for all the states. 

Third, the Federalists appealed to national pride. Referring to the 
insults inflicted on U.S. diplomats and appealing to the prevalent 
Anglophobia, they contended that the increased military power and 
governmental strength the Constitution afforded would enhance na¬ 
tional prestige and elevate the United States in the eyes of other 
nations. If the document were not adopted, dissolution of the Union 
was likely and the states as independent entities would possess little 
power. 

But perhaps the most simple and direct pleading of the Federalist 
cause was the letter Washington sent along with the Constitution 
when he submitted it to the Continental Congress. Its purpose, he 
wrote, was the “consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our 
prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence.” 

ARGUMENTS were important, but the actual process of ratification 
involved practical politics. Some of the state battles were fierce. 
Reason sometimes yielded to passion and both sides on occasion 
resorted to mudslinging and rough-and-tumble tactics. Yet, for the 
most part, the conventions were democratically conducted. 

Giving the Federalists an initial momentum, in December 1787 and 
January 1788 the conventions of five states promptly ratified the 
Constitution. In all these cases, opposition was either lacking or 
ratification action was quick enough to forestall it. The votes in 
Delaware (December 7), New Jersey (December 18), and Georgia 
(January 2) were unanimous. Before opposition could be organized, 
two-thirds of the Pennsylvania convention (December 12) balloted 
for ratification. The Constitution passed in Connecticut (January 9) 

9 4 



THE 


RAT 


F I C A T I O N 


PROCESS 



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Delaware, whose ratification notice is reproduced above, was the first state to approve the 
Constitution on December 7, 1787. 


by a 3 to 1 margin. Except for Pennsylvania, where the vote may not 
have accurately indicated the opinion of the electorate because of 
the haste with which the convention was held, Federalist strength 
was overpowering in these states. 

Between February 6 and June 21, 1788, four more conventions 
ratified the new instrument of government. The first major test came 
in Massachusetts. Although he was not a member of the convention, 
Elbridge Gerry, who had attended the Constitutional Convention for 
its duration but had refused to sign the document, led the Anti¬ 
federalists. Federalist leaders included signers of the Constitution 
Rufus King and Nathaniel Gorham, as well as Caleb Strong. On 
February 6, after the popular John Hancock and Samuel Adams, both 
underwriters of the Declaration of Independence, converted to the 
Federalist cause, the convention narrowly (187-168) approved 
ratification, but it recommended nine amendments. 

All the subsequent states except Maryland were also to propose 
amendments, many including recommendations for adoption of a bill 
of rights and a second convention. Exercise of the amendment 
technique, which obviously required compromise on the part of the 
Federalists, came at a time when in many places their opponents 
were suggesting the calling of another convention to consider amend¬ 
ments. Such action would probably have been chaotic, especially if 
certain states specified the adoption of particular amendments as a 

9 3 





HISTORICAL 


background 


condition of ratification. Thus, for the Federalists, the Massachusetts 
action in merely proposing amendments provided a desirable prece¬ 
dent. 

The New Hampshire convention convened in February 1788 but 
adjourned until June to allow time for further debate in the delegates’ 
home districts. The tempo of ratification revived, however, when 
Maryland (April 28) and South Carolina (May 23) accepted the 
Constitution by substantial margins. 

But people knew the real trials would come in the large states of 
Virginia and New York. Without their approval, the success of the 
new government would be jeopardized. Serious clashes occurred in 
both places and the votes were close. When the Virginia convention 
began on June 2, the pro-Federalist delegates believed that their state, 
the largest and most populous, would fittingly be the ninth to ratify 
and thus make possible inauguration of the new government. 

Among those arguing the Antifederalist side were George Mason, 
Patrick Henry, and James Monroe. Their opponents included James 
Madison, John Marshall, George Wythe, and Edmund Pendleton, as 
well as Edmund J. Randolph after Madison won him over. One factor 
that apparently swung over some enemies of the Constitution was 
the belief that, if it were approved, Washington would likely be the 
first President. The vote in its favor, on June 26, was close, 89 to 79. 
But, meantime, 5 days earlier, New Hampshire, where the Federalists 
won another narrow victory, had become the ninth state to approve 
the Constitution. This was not known in Virginia until after the final 
vote there. 

Another crucial race took place in New York, where the convention 
had been meeting since June 17. Hamilton was the chief strategist of 
the Federalists. Although he felt the Constitution granted insufficient 
power to the central government, he was convinced it was the best 
that could be obtained politically at that time. He did not publicly 
acknowledge the extent of his reservations and worked diligently and 
cleverly for adoption. 

Hamilton conceived the idea of The Federalist. A series of 83 essays 
first published by the newspapers in 1787-88 and almost imme¬ 
diately reissued in book form, the papers presented one of the 
most effective statements of the Federalist position and carried con¬ 
siderable weight in the New York battle, as well as in Virginia. 
Although the essays were issued under a pseudonym, the actual 
authors were Hamilton, who probably wrote 51; Madison, 26; and 
John Jay, 5. Madison and Hamilton jointly wrote three. 

Gov. George Clinton, who strongly urged a second federal conven¬ 
tion, headed the New York Antifederalists. Other leaders were Robert 

9 6 



SUPPLEMENT 


\ 


THE 


Independent Journal, 

NeW'Tork, July 2, 1788. 

y n 0U r Independent Journal of this Morning, we announced the Rati¬ 
fication of the New Confutation by the Convention of Virginia : 
For the gratification of our Readers, we pttblifh the following 
particulars, received by this days poft :— 

Ratification of the New Conftitution, by the Con¬ 
vention of Virginia, on Wednefday laft, by a 
Majority of 10:—88 for it, 78 againft it. 


W E the delegates of the 
people of Virginia, duly 
elected, in purfuance of a re¬ 
commendation of the General 
Alterably, and now met in 
Convention, having fully and 
fairly inveftigated and difeufted 
the proceedings of the federal 
Convention,and being prepared' 
as well as the moft^matwenie^ 
liberation will enable 4 M^*£* 4 $&* 
tide thereon, DO, ifc the Tttflie 


With thefe impreftions, with 
a folcmn appeal to the fearcher 
of hearts for the purity of our 
intentions, and under the con¬ 
viction, that whatfoever imper¬ 
fections may exift in the Con¬ 
ftitution, ought rather to be ex- 
aftpoed in the mode preferibed 
therein, than to bring the 
into danger by a delay, 
*itjr hope of obtaining 
amendments previous to the 


and on behall ol the 01 * ^JaViTifatinn : 

Virginia, declare and make* Wc the faid delegates, in the 

name and in behalf of the peo- 


knewn, that the powers granted 
under the Conftitution being 
derived from the people of the 
United States, maybe relumed 
by them whenfoever the fame 
lliall be perverted to their in¬ 
jury or oppreflion, and that 
every power not granted there¬ 
by, remains with them, and at 
their will That therefore no 
right, of any denomination, can 
be cancelled, abridged, reftrain- 
ed or modified by the Congrefs, 
by the Senate, or l ioufe of Re¬ 
presentatives, acting in any ca¬ 
pacity, by the Preiident. or any 
department or officer of the 
United States, except in thofe 
instances where power is given 
by the Conftitution for thofe 
purpoies: That among other 
eflentiai rights, the liberty of 
conicienee, and of the prefs, 
cannot be cancelled,, abridged, 
reftrained or modified by any 
authority of the United States. 


pie of Virginia, do by thefe 
prefents aflent to and ratify the 
Conftitution, recommended on 
the 17 th day of September, 
1787 , by the Federal Conven¬ 
tion, for the gover nment of the 
United States, hereby an¬ 
nouncing to all thofe whom it 
may concern, that the laid 
Conftitution is binding upon 
the (aid people, according to an 
authentic copy hereto annexed, 
in the words following:— 

[ Here followed a copy of the 
Conftitution ] 

A letter from Richmond ad- 
vifies, “ that a motion for pre¬ 
vious amendments was rejected 
by a majority of eight; but 
that forne days w ould be pafled 
in confidering fiubfequent a- 
mendments, and thefe, it ap¬ 
peared, from the temper of the 
Convention, would be recom¬ 
mended.” 


NEW-YORK Printed by b and A. »LEAN. F*>kkunL Hkao, Ne. M, Uar.ovtr Squwt. 


A New York City newspaper announces details of Virginia’s ratification. 






T H t 


FEDERALIST: 


A COLLECTION 


o r 





ESSAYS, 


WRITTEN IN FAVOUR OF THE 


NEW CONSTITUTION, 


AS AGREED UPON BY THE FEDERAL CONVENTION* 
SEPTEMBER i 7> 1787. 


IN TWO VOLUMES. 


VOL. I. 


N E W-Y O R K: 

PRINTED AND SOLD BY J. AND A. M‘LEAN, 
No. 41 , HANOVER-SQUARE, 

M, D C C» L X X X V II I. 


In a series of anonymous newspaper essays during 1787-88, soon published in book form 
(1788) as The Federalist, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay strongly advocated 
ratification of the Constitution. 








THE 


FIRST 


PRESIDENTIAL 


ELECTION 


Yates and John Lansing, Jr., who had left the Constitutional Conven¬ 
tion early, at least partially because of objections to its nationalistic 
tenor. 

Hamilton was forced to wage an uphill fight, characterized by 
threats and bargains. At the beginning of the convention, the Anti¬ 
federalists were clearly in the majority, though New York City had 
sent a Federalist delegation. Hamilton, arguing that conditional 
ratification would endanger the state by keeping it out of the Union, 
fought a delaying action and managed to postpone a final vote until 
the anticipated news arrived that Virginia and New Hampshire had 
ratified. The balance of power then swung to the Federalists. On July 
26, 1788, by a bare margin of 30-27 New York became the 11th state 
to ratify. But it appended the record number of 32 suggested amend¬ 
ments and sent along various other resolutions, including a vigorous 
recommendation for a second convention. 

Two states that had printed large amounts of paper money and 
had been active in debtor relief, North Carolina and Rhode Island, 
did not ratify until after the new government was set up. On August 
2, 1788, the former, unaware of the New York decision, overwhelm¬ 
ingly voted to defer action on the Constitution until a second federal 
convention considered a declaration of rights and other amendments. 
Influenced by the First Congress’ proposal of the Bill of Rights and 
other factors, on November 21, 1789, a second North Carolina con¬ 
vention ratified the Constitution. 

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which had been the lone 
absentee at the Philadelphia convention, stayed out of the Union until 
1790. During that period, the legislature seven times defeated resolu¬ 
tions calling for a convention. Under threats of economic coercion 
by the federal government and the secession of Providence and other 
towns, on May 29, 1790, the state narrowly ratified. It was the last of 
the 13 original states to do so. 

For all the passions generated by the ratification battles, most of 
the Antifederalists gracefully accepted defeat—though their efforts 
soon won the Bill of Rights. With that exception, they would give the 
Constitution an oppportunity to stand or fall on its own merits. With 
amendments, it has stood until this day. 

The First Presidential Election 

New Hampshire’s ratification in June 1788 had fulfilled the nine-state 
requirement to establish the government. But, for various reasons, 
the Continental Congress did not take steps to do so until July 28, 
or 2 days after New York adopted the instrument. At that time, 
Congress, meeting in New York City, set dates for the selection and 

9 9 



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The tally for the first Presidential election. 

1 0 0 





















































THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 


meeting of electors. In September it named New York City as the 
temporary capital. 

Not restricted by specific constitutional requirements, the state 
legislatures chose the dates for the election of their representatives 
and senators and made arrangements for selecting electors. In accor¬ 
dance with the timetable fixed by the Continental Congress, on 
February 4, 1789, the presidential electors cast their ballots. The 
formal counting of the electoral votes was delayed pending the 
opening of the First Congress, which was scheduled to meet on 
March 4. But it was not until April 6 that Congress reached a quorum 
and began sitting at City (later Federal) Hall in New York City, where 
the Continental Congress had been meeting. That same day, the 
electoral votes were counted before a joint congressional session. 
George Washington was unanimously elected as President, and John 
Adams as Vice President. At Federal Hall on April 30 Washington was 
inaugurated. The new government, the creation of the Constitution, 
was underway. 



All along the route, the populace paid tribute to George Washington as he traveled from Mount 
Vernon to his inauguration in New York City. Here is an artist’s depiction of the salute he 
received in New York Harbor. 


1 0 1 





HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 



Washington’s inauguration on the balcony of Federal Hall, New York City, April 30, 1789. This 
is the only known contemporary rendition of the event. 


Amending the Constitution 

Since 1787 the Constitution has been considerably modified to 
perfect, amplify, and keep it abreast of changing times. The main 
mechanisms have been amendments and judicial interpretation. The 
amending process is outlined in Article V of the Constitution. Amend¬ 
ments may be proposed to the states either by Congress, based on 
a two-thirds vote in both houses, or by a convention called by 
1 0 2 






















THE 


BILL 


O F 


RIGHTS 


Congress at the request of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. 
Ratification requires the approval of three-fourths of the states, either 
by their legislatures or special conventions as Congress may direct. 
No national constitutional convention has ever been called, and the 
only amendment ratified by special state convention was the 21st. 

The number of amendments to date totals 26, the first 10 of which 
(Bill of Rights) were enacted shortly after ratification of the original 
document. Those that have been accepted have survived a grueling 
process. Thousands of proposals for amendments of all 
sorts—praiseworthy and frivolous, realistic and impractical, even in¬ 
cluding suggestions for a virtually new Constitution—have been 
recommended over the years by congressmen, political scientists, and 
others. But these have either failed to win the favor of Congress or 
the states. 

Of the successful amendments, some, reflecting changing national 
aspirations and mores as well as fundamental social transformations, 
have produced governmental reforms and social changes. Others 
have refined the constitutional structure for such purposes as 
democratizing the political system, improving its functioning, or 
relieving associated abuses. The first 10 amendments came into being 
because of fear of national governmental tyranny. 

Except for the Bill of Rights, before World War I amendments were 
relatively rare. For 122 years after 1791, when the Bill of Rights was 
adopted, only five (two in the early years of the republic and three 
in the aftermath of the Civil War) were enacted—or an average of one 
about every 25 years. Since 1913, on the other hand, the nation has 
approved 11, or 1 every 5 V 2 years or so. The increased frequency in 
recent times is doubtless to a considerable extent attributable to the 
rapidity of social and economic change. 


The Bill of Rights 

From the beginning regarded as virtually a part of the original 
Constitution, the Bill of Rights was mainly designed to prevent the 
federal government from infringing on the basic rights of citizens and 
the states. Essentially a reassertion of the traditional rights of English¬ 
men as modified and strengthened by the American experience, these 
measures had already been delineated in various forms—in the 
Northwest Ordinance of 1787; the declarations, or bills, of rights that 
had been adopted by most states, either separately or as part of their 
constitutions; the Declaration of Independence (1776); the Declara¬ 
tion of Rights that the First Continental Congress had issued in 1774; 
and early colonial manifestoes. 


1 0 3 





State 6f North-Carolina. 

IN CON FE NT 10 N, AUGUST i, i 7 S3. 

RefolveJ, That a Dtc aration of Rights, artcrting and feeuring from incroachinerst tlu. great Prir.rp’ts of 
civil and religious Liberty, and the unalienable Rights of the People, together with Amendments to the tnrl 
ambiguous and exceptionable Parts of the laid Conftitution of Government, ought to be laid before Congrel*, 
and the Convention of the States that (hall or mar be called for the Puipofe of Amending the laid Cunftitutiofi, 
for their conftderation, previous to the Ratification ol the Coniiitutioa aforefaid, <<n the part of the State of 
North Carolina. 

DECLARA7ION OF RIGHTS 

tft That there.are certain natural rights of which men, when they form a facial compnft, cannof deprive or 
divert their poftcrity, among which are the enjoyment of life, and liberty, with the means of acquiring, pof- 
fetfing and protecting property, and purftting and obtaining happinefs and fifety. 

2d That all power is naturally verted it:, and coufrquently derived front the'people; that mngiftraUs 
therefore are their truftces, and agents, and at all times amenable to them. 

gd. That Government ought to be inftituted for the common benefit, protartion and fecur-’ty of the people; 
anu that the do&rine of non-refirtance againft arbitrary power and oppielTion is abfurJ, fljviih, and dertiue- 
tive to the good and happinefs of mankind. 

4th That no man or ft; of men are entitled to exclufive or feparatc public enrtnbimftitr or privileges from the 
community, but in confidernriou of public ftrvites; which not being dcfcendible, neither (night the offices of 
m igirt.-ate»lcgiflator 01 judge, or any oth*r public < fiice to be hereditary 

5th, That the legiflutivc, executive and judiciary powers of government flinuld be feprrate and ditmfl.and 
that the methbers of the two firft may be reftrained from oppriflion by feeling and participating the public 
burthens, they flrould at fixed periods be reduced to a priva'e Hation, return into the mats of the people; and 
the vacancies be fupplied by ccitain anJ regular citations; in which all or any part i f tJ;c former tu;aiber» to 
be eligible or ine igible, us the inicsof the Conftitution o! Governu cnt. and the laws Hull d rrfh 

8th, That eleilions of Reprafentaiivcs in the legislature ou !»t to be free and frrqne.-.t, and all men havmsj 
fufficicnt evidence of permanent common intereft with, and .::;a:!■ its• :.r to the u>i n uiiy, ought to > ..vr the 
right of fuffrage t and no aid, charge, tax or fee c.sn be fet, rated, or Uvied upon the people without their own 
content, or that of their reprefentatives, lb elected, nor can they be bound by any iaw, to which they have uo c 
in like manner aflestted for the public good. 

yth. That all power of fufpeadiiig laws, or the execution of laws by any authority without the confect of 
the reprelentativcs, of the people in the Legifl tfure, is injurious to their rignts, and ought not to be exercifcd. 

ttth. That in all capiral and criminal prof'cutions, a man h.fh a right to demand ihe cattfe and u.iture*>f 
Ibis accufwtion, to be confronted with the accuftrs and witotlfls, to call lor evidence and be allowed couni'el in 
his favor, and th a fair and fpcedy trial by an impartial jury o» his vicina/t. without whnfie ufnnlnr.ottt con- 
lent he csnn.otbe fourfd guilty (except in the government of the land and naval forces) nor can he be ca«p>,il. . 
ed to give evidence againft himfeif. 

9tfc. That nofreem.tn ought to be taken, imprifonrd, or dlUVrcd of It's fiech* Id, ’ e ’ic», priv leg: s cr fiarv- 
chifts, or ontlawcd or exiled, or in any manner deftroyed or deprived of ills life, liberty, or property but by 

the law of the land. 

JO'-b. That every freeman retrained of his liberty is entitled to a remedy to enquire into the l.twfnlccf* 
thereof, and to remove the fame, if unlawful, and that fuen re jiciy ought not to be denied nor delayed. 

nth. That in cottrovrrfies refpeding property, and in fuits between man and man, the ancient trial by ju¬ 
ry is one oi the greateft feeurities to the rights of the people, and ou;ht to remain facred atul inviolable. 

t2th. That every freeman ought to find a certain remedy by rccourfe to the laws for all injuries and wrongs 
he may receive in his perfon, property, or character. He ought to obtain right andjuflicc freely without (ale, 
completely and without denial, promptly and withoutdelay, and that all ertablilanuijts, or regulations coatra- 
veningshefe rights, are oppreflive and uajnft. 

13U1. That cxctfGve bail ought Cot to be required, nor exccfiive fines impofed, nor cruel and unufual pu- 
aifhroents infilled, 

14- That every freeman has a right to be fecure from a’! ttnr**f«rtnh!e fearches, and feixures of his perf>n, 
h ; s papers, and property : ail warrants therefore to fearch fufuefted places, or f««e any lice man, hi* ptp rs 
or property, without information upon oath (or aflirmation of a perfon religioufly fcrupulous of taking an oath) 
of legal and fu tficient esufe, aie grievous and opptvffive, and all general wurrantsto fcatch f ifptded places, or 
to apprehend any fufpedfed perfon without fpecialiy naming or deferibing the place or perfon, are dangerous 
and ought not to be granted. 

rjth. That the people have a right peaceably to aflemble together to confult for the common good, or to 
infirurt theif reprefintatives; and mat every freeman has a right to petition or apply to the Legiflature for 
redrefi. of grievances. 

l6th. That the people have a right to freedom of fpeech, and of writing and publifhing their fentimentsj 
that the freedom of the prefisis one of the grcatelf bulwarks of Liberty, and ought n<u to be vio atcJ. 

17 th. That the people have a right to keep and bear arms; that a well rcgolated miiitia compoi'ed of the bo¬ 
dy of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural and fate delence of a free (late. That ftarding armies 
in time of peace ara dangerous to Libeuy, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far asthecircumUaiVccs and 
j>rote< 3 icm 0/the community will admit; and that in all cafes, the military ihould be undar drift fubordina- 
tionto, and governed by the civil power. 

18th. Tnat no foldier in time of peace ought ro be quartered in any houfe without the confect of the owner, 
and in time of war ic fuch manner only as the Laws direft 

19th. That any perfon religioufly ferupu loos ef bearing arms ought to be exempted upon payment of an c- 
quiraleut to employ another to bears arms in his ftead. 

10. That religion, or the duty which wc owe to our Creator, and the manner of difebarging it, can bedi- 
redled only by reafon andconviftlon, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural 
and unalienable right to the free exercife of religion according to the d &au s of confcience, and that no par¬ 
ticular religions feft or fociety ought tobe favoured or eftabhfhed by law iu preference to others. 

Amendments to the Conftitution. 

I- ^jj'HAT each (late in the union {bill.-refpefiivcJy, retain every power, jurifdl&ion and right, which is not 
A by this eoaftitution delegated to the Congrefs of the United States, or to the departments of the 
Federal Government. 






■ 




North Carolina’s first convention to consider the Constitution voted to defer action until a 
declaration of rights was adopted. 


1 0 4 


im- 


the bill of rights 


During the Constitutional Convention and the ratification struggle 
in the states, many objections had been made to the exclusion from 
the Constitution of similar guarantees. When ratifying, many states 
expressed reservations and suggested numerous amendments, espe¬ 
cially a bill of rights. North Carolina, decrying the absence of a 
declaration of rights in the Constitution, even refused to ratify in 1788 
and did not do so until the following year, after the new government 
had been established and by which time such provisions had been 
proposed for addition to the instrument. 

Washington called attention to the lack of a bill of rights in his 
inaugural address, and the First Congress moved quickly to correct 
this fault. Madison, in a prodigious effort, synthesized most of the 
amendments the states had recommended into nine propositions. 
The House committee, on which he sat, expanded these to 17. The 
Senate, with House concurrence, later reduced the number to 12. 
Meantime, the decision had been made to append all amendments 
to the Constitution rather than to insert them in the text at ap¬ 
propriate spots, as Madison had originally desired. 

By December 1791 the States had ratified the last 10 of the 12 
amendments Congress had submitted to them in September 1789. 
The first of the two that were not sanctioned proposed a future 
change in the numerical constituency of representatives and in their 
number; the second would have deferred any changes in congres¬ 
sional salaries that might be made until the term of the succeeding 
Congress. 

The first amendment, covering the free expression of opinion, 
prohibits congressional interference with the freedom of religion, 
speech, press, assembly, and petition. Amendments two through four 
guarantee the rights of citizens to bear arms for lawful purposes, 
disallow the quartering of troops in private homes without the 
consent of the owner, and bar unreasonable searches and seizures 
by the government. 

Amendments five, six, and eight essentially provide protection 
against arbitrary arrest, trial, and punishment, principally in federal 
criminal cases though over the course of time the judiciary has held 
that many of the provisions also apply in state cases. Mainly to prevent 
harassment of the citizenry by governmental officials, these measures 
established the right of civilian defendants to grand jury indictments 
for major crimes; prohibit “double jeopardy,” or duplicate trial, for 
the same offense, as well as self-incrimination; deny deprivation of 
“life, liberty, or property without due process of law”; ensure the right 
of the accused to have legal counsel, be informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation, subpoena witnesses on his own behalf, 


1 0 5 



HISTORICAL 


BACKGROUND 



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The Bill of Rights 


confront the witnesses against him, and receive an expeditious and 
public jury trial; and ban excessive bails and fines, as well as “cruel 
and unusual punishments.” The fifth amendment also prohibits the 
government seizure of private property under the doctrine of eminent 
domain without proper compensation. 

The seventh amendment guarantees the right of a jury trial in 
virtually all civil cases. 

Amendment nine states that the rights enumerated in the Constitu¬ 
tion are not to be “construed to deny or disparage others retained by 
the people.” The 10th amendment, somewhat different from the 


1 0 6 







SUBSEQUENT AMENDMENTS 


other nine because of its allusion to the states, reserves to them and 
the people all “powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States.” 

Contrary to a popular misconception, the main body of the Con¬ 
stitution also contains various safeguards similar to those in the Bill 
of Rights that protect citizens and the states against unreasonable 
actions. Article I prohibits the government from suspending the writ 
of habeas corpus, which would otherwise allow arbitrary arrest, and 
both the national government and the states from enacting bills of 
attainder (legislative punishment of crimes) and ex post facto laws 
(retroactively making acts criminal). Article III requires a jury trial for 
federal crimes and limits the definition of treason and penalties for 
the offense. 

Article IV guarantees that the acts, records, and judicial proceedings 
of one state are valid in all the others; grants to citizens of every state 
the privileges and immunities of the others as defined by law; 
warrants the representative government and territorial integrity of the 
states; and promises them the protection of the national government 
against foreign invasion and domestic insurrection. Article VI ex¬ 
cludes religious tests for officeholding. 

Nevertheless, it is the Bill of Rights that has become the main 
bulwark of the civil liberties of the American people. These measures, 
which make the Constitution a defender of liberty as well as an 
instrument of governmental power, represented another swing of the 
pendulum. The Articles of Confederation had created a weak league 
of semi-independent states. As a result, citizens looked primarily to 
the states for protection of their basic rights, which were defined in 
constitutions or separate declarations. Then the Constitution provided 
a strong central government. This was counterbalanced by the Bill of 
Rights, which allowed continuance of such a government with full 
regard for the rights of the people. 

In recent decades, the Bill of Rights has acquired increased sig¬ 
nificance to all citizens because the Supreme Court has ruled that 
many parts of it are applicable to the states as well as to the federal 
government. 

Subsequent Amendments 

The 11th amendment, which was passed by Congress in 1794 and 
ratified the next year, was engendered by state objections to the 
power of the federal judiciary and represents the only occasion to 
date whereby an amendment has limited its authority. Curtailing 
federal power in actions brought against individual states, the 


1 0 7 




As early as 1788, the year this magazine drawing appeared, Americans revered the Constitution. 
The allegory depicts Cupid presenting a copy of the document to Concord as she approaches 
the 13-pillared Temple of Liberty, Justice, and Peace. Clio, the muse of history, kneels beside 
Concord and records the message Cupid is delivering. 


1 0 8 





















S U B S E Q u 


ENT 


AMENDMENTS 


measure denies the federal courts jurisdiction over private suits 
brought against one state by citizens of another or of a foreign 
country. 

The 12th amendment, which won the approbation of Congress in 
1803 and state approval the following year, is a constitutional accom¬ 
modation to the formation of political parties. Many of the Founding 
Fathers, who had themselves not been immune to divisiveness, had 
feared their growth, which they believed would stimulate factional 
strife. But parties soon proved to be necessary vehicles for the 
nation’s political life. 

As they grew, the method of electing the President and Vice 
President as originally set forth at Philadelphia became cumbersome 
and controversial, if not practically unworkable. The election of 1796 
produced a President and Vice President of different parties. In 1800 
a tied electoral vote occurred between members of the same party, 
and the House of Representatives was forced to choose a President. 
These two experiences created the necessary sentiment to modify the 
electoral process. The principal provision of the 12th amendment 
required future electors to cast separate ballots for the two executives. 

For more than six decades after the ratification of the 12th, no 
further amendments were enacted. Then the Civil War crisis created 
three, the so-called “national supremacy” amendments, which con¬ 
gressional Radical Reconstructionists proposed. The 13th, sent out to 
the states in 1864 and ratified in 1863, was the first attempt to use 
the amending process to institute national social reform. It followed 
upon Lincoln’s limited and preliminary action in the Emancipation 
Proclamation (1863) to free the slaves. Although the amendment 
declared slavery and involuntary servitude (except as punishment for 
crimes) to be unconstitutional, it did not provide blacks with civil- 
rights guarantees equal to those of whites. 

During the Reconstruction period, therefore, two more additions 
to the Constitution became the law of the land. Their main objectives 
were to insure the rights of black men to full citizenship. Ultimately, 
however, because of their broad phraseology, the two amendments 
have come to have significant repercussions for all citizens. The 14th, 
proposed in 1866 and ratified 2 years later, decrees that all persons 
born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the nation and 
of the state in which they live. The legislation also forbids the states 
from making any laws that abridge the “privileges or immunities of 
citizens of the United States,” deprive them of “life, liberty, or 
property, without due process of law,” or deny them the “equal 
protection of the laws.” 


1 0 9 



H I S T O R 


CAL 


BACKGROUND 


CliirtnCongress of tlje ilnitrt) States of America; 

— Session, 

tiepin and hold at the City of Washington, on Monday, the *, < /X -day of December, one thousand eight hundred and sixty 


A RESOLUTION 

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The resolution proposing the 13th amendment, which outlawed slavery and was the first 
attempt to use the amending process to institute national social reform. 


The amendment also expanded representation in the House of 
Representatives from that contained in the original Constitution (the 
free, essentially white, population plus three-fifths of all slaves) to 
include all persons except untaxed Indians. Another provision stated 
that the representation of states arbitrarily denying the vote to adult 


1 1 0 





SUBSEQUENT 


AMENDMENTS 


men would be reduced. The measure also barred from federal 
officeholding those Confederates who had held federal or state 
offices before the Civil War, except when Congress chose to waive 
this disqualification, and ruled invalid all debts contracted to aid the 
Confederacy as well as claims for compensation covering the loss or 
emancipation of slaves. 

The most important goal for which the amendment was added to 
the Constitution, the legal equality of blacks, was not fully realized 
until the 24th outlawed the poll tax in 1964. The attempt to limit the 
political participation of ex-Confederate leaders failed. In recent years, 
however, the Supreme Court has often used the amendment to 
achieve fuller state conformance with the Bill of Rights. Furthermore, 
judicial interpretations have broadened the meaning of such key 
phrases as “privileges or immunities,” “due process,” and “equal 
protection of the laws.” Congress has also passed new enforcement 
legislation. 

Despite the legislative efforts of the Radical Republicans, black men 
continued to be denied equal voting rights. In 1869, therefore, 
Congress passed and the next year the states ratified the 15th amend¬ 
ment. Attempting to protect the rights of ex-slaves it explicitly stated: 
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude.” 

Not until 1913 was the Constitution again changed. Before that 
time, Congress had only enjoyed the power to levy direct taxes in 
proportion to the populations of the states. During the late 19th 
century, the need for a federal income tax began to become apparent 
to many people in the country, but the Supreme Court on various 
occasions declared such a tax to be unconstitutional. By 1909 support 
for it was strong enough to warrant passage of the 16th amendment. 
Many Congressmen who voted affirmatively felt the states would 
never approve the action. Yet, 4 years later, they ratified it. The 
income tax quickly became a principal source of federal revenue and 
facilitated governmental expansion. 

Later in 1913 the states approved another amendment, which 
Congress had sanctioned the previous year. The 17th authorized the 
direct election of senators by the voters rather than by state legisla¬ 
tures, as specified in the Constitution. The original method had long 
been a target of reformers. Numerous times between 1893 and 1911 
the House of Representatives proposed amendments calling for 
popular selection of senators. The Senate, however, apparently con¬ 
cerned among other things about the tenure of its members and 
resenting the invasion of their prerogatives by the lower House, 


1 1 1 



historical 


background 


refused to give its stamp of approval to the legislation. But, by the 
latter year, pressure for change had become intense, particularly 
because the popular image of the Senate had become that of a 
millionaires’ club divorced from the interests of the people. That 
same year, an Illinois election scandal helped turn the tide. Also, 
many states had by that time adopted senatorial preference primaries 
as an expression of popular sentiment to the legislators. 

The highly controversial “prohibition” amendment, the 18th, 
cleared Congress in 1917 and was ratified 2 years later. It prohibited 
the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for 
beverage purposes” and their importation into or exportation from 
the United States. This legislation was the result of nearly a century 
of temperance efforts to eliminate or limit use of alcoholic beverages. 
But unsuccessful enforcement and opposition by large elements of 
the public, particularly in urban areas, soon doomed the “noble 
experiment.” In the only instance when an amendment has been 
repealed by another, the 21st, which was both proposed and ratified 
in 1933, voided the 18th. It returned control of alcohol to states and 
local jurisdictions, which could choose to remain “dry” if they so 
preferred. 

The persistence of reformers likewise produced the 19th amend¬ 
ment, passed in 1919 and ratified the next year. Equal voting rights 
in federal and state elections were granted to women. Especially after 
the Civil War, they had begun to improve their legal status, and some 
states in the West had granted them the right to vote. During the 
early years of the 20th century, more states extended the privilege. 
These and other factors, coupled with the efforts of suffragists, 
facilitated adoption of the amendment. It marked a major step toward 
fuller political equality for women. 

Congress gave its imprimatur to the so-called “lame duck” amend¬ 
ment, the 20th, in 1932 and it became effective the next year. 
Designed mainly to hasten and smooth the post-election succession 
of the President and Congress, it specified that the terms of the 
President and Vice President would begin on January 20 following 
the fall elections instead of on March 4 and required Congress to 
convene on January 3, when the terms of all newly elected Con¬ 
gressmen were also to begin. Correcting another defect in the Con¬ 
stitution was the stipulation that the Vice President-elect would 
succeed to the highest office in the land in the event the President¬ 
elect died before his inauguration or no President-elect had qualified. 

Proposed to the states by Congress in 1947, the 22d amendment 
was ratified in 1951. Aimed in large part at preventing the repetition 
of the unprecedented four terms to which Franklin D. Roosevelt had 


1 1 2 



S UBSEQUENT 


A M E N D M E 


NTS 



Women’s suffrage parades, such as this one in Washington, helped pave the way for the 19th 
amendment (1919). 


been elected as President, it limited the service of chief executives 
to a maximum of the traditional two full terms. Vice Presidents 
succeeding to the office were to be restricted to one term if the 
unexpired portion of that to which they succeeded was longer than 
2 years. The incumbent, Harry S. Truman, who was serving when this 
amendment was added to the Constitution, was exempted from it, 
though he did not choose to run for a second full term. 

District of Columbia residents won the right to vote for presidential 
electors in the 23d amendment, which gained congressional approval 
in I960 and was ratified the following year. It was part of the 
endeavor to obtain for D.C. residents political rights equal to those 
of citizens of the states. Although this step fell short of the “home 
rule” sought for the District, it was a major step toward more 
extensive political participation by its citizens. 

The civil rights struggle of black people in the 1950s and early 
1960s resulted in the 24th amendment, which was proposed in 1962 
and ratified 2 years later. It outlawed poll taxes as a prerequisite for 


1 1 3 










Sw.WWWK 8< vra 







5N- 




ffepyttJtftit. V. A JtortJt * <N>,. ltj«'/ 


3 

The 100th anniversary of the Constitution occasioned celebrations across the land and such 
special tributes as a “Centennial March.” 


1 1 4 









SUBSEQUENT 


AMENDMENTS 


voting in federal elections. This device had long been used in some 
places to limit political participation, especially by blacks. 

The long illnesses of Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Dwight D. 
Eisenhower and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 
coupled with the enormous contemporary importance of the 
presidency, gave rise to the 25th amendment. It was passed by 
Congress in 1965 and ratified in 1967. Steps to be followed in the 
event of presidential disability were outlined, and a method was 
established for expeditiously filling vacancies in the office of Vice 
President. When there is no Vice President, the President will 
nominate a replacement, who needs only approval by a congressional 
majority. In the event of presidential disability, the Vice President will 
temporarily hold the office of Acting President. 

The 26th amendment, proposed and ratified in 1971, provided 
another extension of the franchise. In recognition of the increasing 
contributions of youth to American society, the minimum voting age 
in all elections was lowered to 18 years. Although a few states, in 
accordance with their discretionary rights at the time, had earlier 
reduced the voting age from 21, this constitutional addition made the 
national franchise uniform in terms of minimum age. 

DESPITE its numerous advantages, the amendment process has proven 
to be less than perfect as a vehicle of change. Although the rigorous 
procedure required to enact amendments has prevented hasty and 
ill-advised action, it has on occasion delayed the inauguration of 
badly needed reforms. The brief and sometimes imprecise wording 
of the amendments, as well as of the Constitution itself, has neces¬ 
sitated prolonged and complex interpretation by the Supreme Court. 
The public and various governmental organs have on occasion failed 
to heed or fully execute our highest national law. 

Whatever the flaws in our constitutional system, it enunciates our 
democratic principles and provides a superlative formula and instru¬ 
ment of government, which has established its primacy among the 
efforts of men to govern themselves. Yet the true guardian of our 
sacred charter of liberties is the vigilance of the people. 


1 1 5 


































































































































PART TWO 


Framers of the Constitution: 
BIOGRAPHICAL 
SKETCHES 








BIOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


T he 55 delegates who attended the Constitutional Convention 
were a distinguished body of men who represented a cross 
section of 18th-century American leadership. Almost all of 
them were well-educated men of means who were dominant in their 
communities and states, and many were also prominent in national 
affairs. Virtually every one had taken part in the Revolution; at least 
29 had served in the Continental forces, most of them in positions 
of command. 

Political Experience 

The practical political experience of the group was extensive. At the 
time of the convention, four-fifths, or 44 individuals, were or had 
been members of the Continental Congress. Mifflin and Gorham had 
served as president of the body. The only ones who lacked congres¬ 
sional experience were Bassett, Blair, Brearly, Broom, Davie, Hous- 
toun, Mason, McClurg, Paterson, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Strong, 
and Yates. Eight men (Clymer, Franklin, Gerry, Robert Morris, Read, 
Sherman, Wilson, and Wythe) had signed the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence. Six (Carroll, Dickinson, Gerry, Gouvemeur Morris, Robert 
Morris, and Sherman) had affixed their signatures to the Articles of 
Confederation. But only two, Sherman and Robert Morris, underwrote 
all three of the nation’s basic documents. Practically all of the 55 
delegates had experience in colonial and state government. Dickin¬ 
son, Franklin, Langdon, Livingston, Alexander Martin, Randolph, Read, 
and Rutledge had been governors, and the majority had held county 
and local offices. 

Occupations 

Among the delegates, the range of occupations was wide, and many 
men simultaneously pursued more than one career. Thirty-five 
were lawyers or had benefited from legal training, though not all 
of them relied on the profession for a livelihood. Some had also 
become judges. 

At the time of the convention, 13 individuals were businessmen, 
merchants, or shippers: Blount, Broom, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, 
Gerry, Gilman, Gorham, Langdon, Robert Morris, Pierce, Sherman, and 
Wilson. Six were major land speculators: Blount, Dayton, Fitzsimons, 
Gorham, Robert Morris, and Wilson. Eleven speculated in securities 
on a large scale: Bedford, Blair, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Franklin, 
King, Langdon, Robert Morris, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and 
Sherman. Twelve owned or managed slave-operated plantations or 
large farms: Bassett, Blair, Blount, Butler, Carroll, Jenifer, Mason, 


1 1 9 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Charles Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Rutledge, Spaight, 
and Washington. Madison also owned slaves. Broom and Few were 
small farmers. 

Nine of the men received a substantial part of their income from 
public office: Baldwin, Blair, Brearly, Gilman, Jenifer, Livingston, 
Madison, and Rutledge. Three had retired from active economic 
endeavors: Franklin, McHenry, and Mifflin. Franklin and Williamson 
were scientists, among their other activities. McClurg, McHenry, and 
Williamson were physicians, and Johnson was a university president. 
Baldwin had been a minister, and Williamson, Madison, Ellsworth, 
and possibly others had studied in this field but had never been 
ordained. 

A few of the delegates were rich. Washington and Robert Morris 
ranked among the nation’s wealthiest men. Carroll, Houstoun, Jenifer, 
and Mifflin were also extremely well-to-do. The financial resources 
of the majority of the rest ranged from good to excellent. Among 
those with the most straitened circumstances were Baldwin, Brearly, 
Broom, Few, Madison, Paterson, and Sherman, though they all 
managed to live comfortably. 

A considerable number of the men were born into leading 
families: Blair, Butler, Carroll, Houstoun, Ingersoll, Jenifer, Johnson, 
Livingston, Mifflin, Gouverneur Morris, both Pinckneys, Randolph, 
Rutledge, Washington, and Wythe. Others were self-made men who 
had risen from humble beginnings: Few, Franklin, Gorham, Hamilton, 
and Sherman. 

Geographic and Educational Background 

Most of the group were natives of the 13 colonies. Only eight were 
born elsewhere: four (Butler, Fitzsimons, McHenry, and Paterson) in 
Ireland, two (Davie and Robert Morris) in England, one (Wilson) in 
Scotland, and one (Hamilton) in the West Indies. But, if most of the 
signers were native-born, many of them had moved from one state 
to another. Reflecting the mobility that has always characterized 
American life, 16 individuals had already lived or worked in more 
than one state or colony: Baldwin, Bassett, Bedford, Dickinson, Few, 
Franklin, Ingersoll, Livingston, Alexander Martin, Luther Martin, Mer¬ 
cer, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, Read, Sherman, and William¬ 
son. Others had studied or traveled abroad. 

The educational background of the Founding Fathers was diverse. 
Some, Franklin for example, were largely self-taught and had received 
scant formal training. Others had obtained instruction from private 
tutors or at academies. About half of the individuals had attended or 
graduated from college in the present United States or abroad. Some 


1 2 0 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 



Several delegates attended the College of New Jersey (present Princeton University), shown 
here about 1764. Nassau Hall, the main building, is on the left; the president’s house, on the 
right. 


men held advanced and honorary degrees. All in all, the delegates 
were a well-educated group. 


Longevity and Family Life 

For their era, the delegates to the convention, like the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence, were remarkably long-lived. The 
average age at death was almost 67. Johnson reached 92 years, and 
Few, Franklin, Madison, Williamson, and Wythe lived into their 
eighties. Passing away in their eighth decade were 15 or 16 (because 
Fitzsimons was either 69 or 70 at the time of his death), and 20 or 
21 in their sixties. Eight lived into their fifties; five lived only into 
their forties, and two of them (Hamilton and Spaight) were killed in 
duels. The first to die, in 1788, was Houston; the last, Madison, in 
1836. 

Most of the delegates married and raised children. Sherman 
fathered the largest family, 15 children by 2 wives. At least nine 
(Bassett, Brearly, Johnson, Mason, Paterson, Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney, Sherman, Wilson, and Wythe) married more than once. 
Four (Baldwin, Gilman, Jenifer, and Alexander Martin) were lifelong 


1 2 1 







B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


bachelors. In terms of religious affiliation, the men mirrored the 
overwhelmingly Protestant character of American religious life at the 
time and were members of various denominations. Only two, Carroll 
and Fitzsimons, were Roman Catholics. 

Post-Convention Careers 

The later careers of the delegates reflected their abilities as well as 
the vagaries of fate. Most were successful, though seven (Fitzsimons, 
Gorham, Luther Martin, Mifflin, Robert Morris, Pierce, and Wilson) 
suffered serious financial reverses that left them in or near bankruptcy. 
Two, Blount and Dayton, were involved in possibly treasonous ac¬ 
tivities. Yet, as they had done before the convention, most of the 
group continued to render outstanding public service, particularly to 
the new government they had helped to create. 

Washington and Madison became President of the United States, 
and King and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney were nominated as can¬ 
didates for the office. Gerry served as Madison’s Vice President. 
Hamilton, McHenry, Madison, and Randolph attained cabinet posts. 
Nineteen men became U.S. senators: Baldwin, Bassett, Blount, Butler, 
Dayton, Ellsworth, Few, Gilman, Johnson, King, Langdon, Alexander 
Martin, Gouverneur Morris, Robert Morris, Paterson, Charles Pinckney, 
Read, Sherman, and Strong. Thirteen served in the House of 
Representatives: Baldwin, Carroll, Clymer, Dayton, Fitzsimons, Gerry, 
Gilman, Madison, Mercer, Charles Pinckney, Sherman, Spaight, and 
Williamson. Of these, Dayton served as Speaker. Four men (Bassett, 
Bedford, Brearly, and Few) served as federal judges, four more (Blair, 
Paterson, Rutledge, and Wilson) as associate justices of the Supreme 
Court. Rutledge and Ellsworth also held the position of Chief Justice. 
Seven others, Davie, Ellsworth, Gerry, King, Gouverneur Morris, 
Charles Pinckney, and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, were named to 
diplomatic missions for the nation. 

Many delegates held important state positions, including governor 
(Blount, Davie, Franklin, Gerry, Langdon, Livingston, Alexander Mar¬ 
tin, Mifflin, Paterson, Charles Pinckney, Spaight, and Strong) and 
legislator. And most of the delegates contributed in many ways to the 
cultural life of their cities, communities, and states. Not surprisingly, 
many of their sons and other descendants were to occupy high 
positions in American political and intellectual life. 


1 2 2 



B IOGRAPHICA 


L 


SKETCHES 


A braham Baldwin 

Georgia 

Baldwin was bom at Guil¬ 
ford, Conn., in 1754, the second 
son of a blacksmith who fathered 
12 children by 2 wives. Besides 
Abraham, several of the family 
attained distinction. His sister 
Ruth married the poet and 
diplomat Joel Barlow, and his 
half-brother Henry attained the 
position of justice of the U.S. 

Supreme Court. Their ambitious 
father went heavily into debt to 
educate his children. 

After attending a local village 
school, Abraham matriculated at 
Yale, in nearby New Haven. He 
graduated in 1772. Three years 
later, he became a minister and 
tutor at the college. He held that 
position until 1779, when he 
served as a chaplain in the Continental Army. Two years later, he 
declined an offer from his alma mater of a professorship of divinity. 
Instead of resuming his ministerial or educational duties after the 
war, he turned to the study of law and in 1783 gained admittance to 
the bar at Fairfield, Conn. 

Within a year, Baldwin moved to Georgia, won legislative approval 
to practice his profession, and obtained a grant of land in Wilkes 
County. In 1785 he sat in the assembly and the Continental Congress. 
Two years later, his father died and Baldwin undertook to pay off his 
debts and educate, out of his own pocket, his half-brothers and 
half-sisters. 

That same year, Baldwin attended the Constitutional Convention, 
from which he was absent for a few weeks. Although usually incon¬ 
spicuous, he sat on the committee on postponed matters and helped 
resolve the large-small state representation crisis. At first, he favored 
representation in the Senate based upon property holdings, but 
possibly because of his close relationship with the Connecticut 
delegation he later came to fear alienation of the small states and 
changed his mind to representation by state. 

After the convention, Baldwin returned to the Continental Congress 
(1787-89). He was then elected to the U.S. Congress, where he 



1 2 3 





B 


OGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


served for 18 years (House of Representatives, 1789-99; Senate, 
1799-1807). During these years, he came to be a bitter opponent of 
Hamiltonian policies and, unlike most other native New Englanders, 
an ally of Madison and Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. In 
the Senate, he presided for a while as president pro tern. 

By 1790 Baldwin had taken up residence in Augusta. Beginning in 
the preceding decade, he had begun efforts to advance the educa¬ 
tional system in Georgia. Appointed with six others in 1784 to 
oversee the founding of a state college, he saw his dream come true 
in 1798 when Franklin College was founded. Modeled after Yale, it 
became the nucleus of the University of Georgia. 

Baldwin, who never married, died after a short illness during his 
53d year in 1807. Still serving in the Senate at the time, he was buried 
in Washington’s Rock Creek Cemetery. 


ichard Bassett 

Delaware 

Bassett (Basset) was born 
in Cecil County, Md., in April 
1745. After his tavern-keeper 
father deserted his mother, he 
was reared by a relative, Peter 
Lawson, from whom he later in¬ 
herited Bohemia Manor (Md.) es¬ 
tate. He read for the law at 
Philadelphia and in 1770 received 
a license to practice in Dover, 

Del. Prospering as a lawyer- 
planter, he eventually came to 
own not only Bohemia Manor, 
but also homes in Dover and 
Wilmington. 

During the Revolution, Bassett 
captained a troop of Dover cavalry 
militia and served on the Delaware council of safety. Subsequently, he 
participated in Delaware’s constitutional convention and sat in both 
the upper and lower houses of the legislature. In 1786, on behalf of 
his state, he took part in the Annapolis Convention. 

At the U.S. Constitutional Convention the next year, Bassett at¬ 
tended diligently but made no speeches, served on no committees, 
and cast no critical votes. Like several other delegates of estimable 
reputation and talent, he allowed others to make the major steps. 

1 2 4 










BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


Bassett subsequently went on to a bright career in the state and 
federal governments. In the Delaware ratifying convention, he joined 
in the 30-0 vote for the Constitution. Subsequently, in the years 
1789-93, he served in the U.S. Senate. In that capacity, he voted in 
favor of the power of the President to remove governmental officers 
and against Hamilton’s plan for the federal assumption of state debts. 

From 1793 until 1799 he held the chief justiceship of the court of 
common pleas. Espousing the federalist cause in the 1790s, he served 
as a presidential elector, on behalf of John Adams, in 1797. Two years 
later, Bassett was elected Governor of Delaware and continued in that 
post until 1801. That year, he became one of President Adams’ 
“midnight” appointments, as a judge of the U.S. Circuit Court. Sub¬ 
sequently, the Jeffersonian Republicans abolished his judgeship, and 
he spent the rest of his life in retirement. 

Twice married, to Ann Ennals and a woman named Bruff, Bassett 
fathered several children. He was a devout Methodist, held religious 
meetings at Bohemia Manor, and financially supported the church. 
He died in 1813 at the age of 70 and is interred at the Wilmington 
and Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Del. 


unning Bedford, Jr. 

Delaware 

Born in 1747 at Philadel 
phia, Bedford was reared there. 
The fifth of seven children, he 
was descended from a distin¬ 
guished family that originally set¬ 
tled in Jamestown, Va. Usually he 
referred to himself as Gunning 
Bedford, Jr., to avoid confusion 
with his cousin and contemporary 
Delaware statesman and soldier, 
Col. Gunning Bedford. 

In 1771 signer Bedford grad¬ 
uated with honors from the Col¬ 
lege of New Jersey (later Prince¬ 
ton), where he was a classmate 
of James Madison. Apparently 
while still in school, Bedford 
wed Jane B. Parker, who was to 
bear at least one daughter. After 
reading law with Joseph Read in 




1 2 3 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Philadelphia, Bedford won admittance to the bar and set up a 
practice. Subsequently he moved to Dover and then to Wilmington. 
He apparently served in the Continental Army, possibly as an aide to 
General Washington. 

Following the war, Bedford figured prominently in the politics of 
his state and nation. He sat in the legislature, on the state council, 
and in the Continental Congress (1783-85). In the latter year, he was 
chosen as a delegate to the Annapolis Convention but for some 
reason did not attend. From 1784 to 1789 he was attorney general 
of Delaware. 

Bedford numbered among the more active members of the Con¬ 
stitutional Convention and he missed few sessions. A large and 
forceful man, he spoke on several occasions and was a member of 
the committee that drafted the Great Compromise. An ardent small- 
state advocate, he attacked the pretensions of the large states over 
the small and warned that the latter might be forced to seek foreign 
alliances unless their interests were accommodated. He attended the 
Delaware ratifying convention. 

For another 2 years, Bedford continued as Delaware’s attorney 
general. In 1789 Washington designated him as a federal district judge 
for his state, an office he was to occupy for the rest of his life. His 
only other ventures into national politics came in 1789 and 1793, as 
a Federalist presidential elector. In the main, however, he spent his 
later years in judicial pursuits, in aiding Wilmington Academy, in 
fostering abolitionism, and in enjoying his Lombardy Hall farm. 

Bedford died at the age of 65 in 1812 and was buried in the First 
Presbyterian Churchyard in Wilmington. Later, when the cemetery was 
abandoned, his body was transferred to the Masonic Home, on the 
Lancaster Turnpike in Christiana Hundred, Del. 


1 2 6 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 



J ohn Blair 

Virginia 

Scion of a prominent Vir¬ 
ginia family, Blair was born at 
Williamsburg in 1732. He was the 
son of John Blair, a colonial offi¬ 
cial and nephew of James Blair, 
founder and first president of the 
College of William and Mary. 

Signer Blair graduated from that 
institution and studied law at 
London’s Middle Temple. There¬ 
after, he practiced at Williams¬ 
burg. In the years 1766-70 he sat 
in the Virginia House of Burgesses 
as the representative of William 
and Mary. From 1770 to 1775 he 
held the position of clerk of the 
colony’s council. 

An active patriot, Blair signed 
the Virginia Association of June 
22, 1770, which pledged to aban¬ 
don importation of British goods until the Townshend Duties were 
repealed. He also underwrote the Association of May 27, 1774, calling 
for a meeting of the colonies in a Continental Congress and support¬ 
ing the Bostonians. He took part in the Virginia constitutional con¬ 
vention (1776), at which he sat on the committee that framed a 
declaration of rights as well as the plan for a new government. He 
next served on the Privy Council (1776-78). In the latter year, the 
legislature elected him as a judge of the General Court, and he soon 
took over the chief justiceship. In 1780 he won election to Virginia’s 
high chancery court, where his colleague was George Wythe. 

Blair attended the Constitutional Convention religiously but never 
spoke or served on a committee. He usually sided with the position 
of the Virginia delegation. And, in the commonwealth ratifying con¬ 
vention, Blair helped win backing for the new framework of govern¬ 
ment. 

In 1789 Washington named Blair as an associate justice of the U.S. 
Supreme Court, where he helped decide many important cases. 
Resigning that post in 1796, he spent his remaining years in Wil¬ 
liamsburg. A widower, his wife (born Jean Balfour) having died in 
1792, he lived quietly until he succumbed in 1800. He was 68 years 
old. His tomb is in the graveyard of Bruton Parish Church. 


1 2 7 




B I O G R A P H 


I 


CAL 


SKETCHES 


W illiam Blount 

North Carolina 
William Blount was the 
great-grandson of Thomas Blount, 
who came from England to Vir¬ 
ginia soon after 1660 and settled 
on a North Carolina plantation. 

William, the eldest in a large 
family, was born in 1749 while 
his mother was visiting his 
grandfather’s Rosefield estate, on 
the site of present Windsor near 
Pamlico Sound. The youth ap¬ 
parently received a good educa¬ 
tion. 

Shortly after the War for In¬ 
dependence began, in 1776, 

Blount enlisted as a paymaster in 
the North Carolina forces. Two 
years later, he wed Mary Grainger 
(Granger); of their six children who reached adulthood, one son 
also became prominent in Tennessee politics. 

Blount spent most of the remainder of his life in public office. He 
sat in the lower house of the North Carolina legislature (1780-84), 
including service as speaker, as well as in the upper (1788-90). In 
addition, he took part in national politics, serving in the Continental 
Congress in 1782-83 and 1786-87. 

Appointed as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention at the 
age of 38, Blount was absent for more than a month because he 
chose to attend the Continental Congress on behalf of his state. He 
said almost nothing in the debates and signed the Constitution 
reluctantly—only, he said, to make it “the unanimous act of the States 
in Convention.” Nonetheless, he favored his state’s ratification of the 
completed document. 

Blount hoped to be elected to the first U.S. Senate. When he failed 
to achieve that end, in 1790 he pushed westward beyond the Ap¬ 
palachians, where he held speculative land interests and had 
represented North Carolina in dealings with the Indians. He settled 
in what became Tennessee, to which he devoted the rest of his life. 
He resided first at Rocky Mount, a cabin near present Johnson City 
and in 1792 built a mansion in Knoxville. 

Two years earlier, Washington had appointed Blount as Gover¬ 
nor for the Territory South of the River Ohio (which included 



1 2 8 






BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


Tennessee) and also as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the 
Southern Department, in which positions he increased his popularity 
with the frontiersmen. In 1796 he presided over the constitutional 
convention that transformed part of the territory into the State of 
Tennessee. He was elected as one of its first U.S. senators (1796-97). 

During this period, Blount’s affairs took a sharp turn for the worse. 
In 1797 his speculations in western lands led him into serious 
financial difficulties. That same year, he also apparently concocted a 
plan involving use of Indians, frontiersmen, and British naval forces 
to conquer for Britain the Spanish provinces of Florida and Louisiana. 
A letter he wrote alluding to the plan fell into the hands of President 
Adams, who turned it over to the Senate on July 3, 1797. Five days 
later, that body voted 23 to 1 to expel Blount. The House impeached 
him, but the Senate dropped the charges in 1799 on the grounds that 
no further action could be taken beyond his dismissal. 

The episode did not hamper Blount’s career in Tennessee. In 1798 
he was elected to the senate and rose to the speakership. He died 2 
years later at Knoxville in his early fifties. He is buried there in the 
cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church. 


avid Brearly 

New Jersey 

Brearly (Brearley) was 
descended from a Yorkshire, 

England, family, one of whose 
members migrated to New Jersey 
around 1680. Signer Brearly was 
born in 1745 at Spring Grove 
near Trenton, was reared in the 
area, and attended but did not 
graduate from the nearby College 
of New Jersey (later Princeton). 

He chose law as a career and 
originally practiced at Allentown, 

N.J. About 1767 he married 
Elizabeth Mullen. 

Brearly avidly backed the 
Revolutionary cause. The British 
arrested him for high treason, 
but a group of patriots freed him. In 1776 he took part in the conven¬ 
tion that drew up the state constitution. During the War for Inde¬ 
pendence, he rose from a captain to a colonel in the militia. 




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In 1779 Brearly was elected as chief justice of the New Jersey 
supreme court, a position he held until 1789. He presided over the 
precedent-setting case of Holmes v. Walton. His decision, rendered 
in 1780, represented an early expression of the principle of judicial 
review. The next year, the College of New Jersey bestowed an 
honorary MA degree on him. 

Brearly was 42 years of age when he participated in the Constitu¬ 
tional Convention. Although he did not rank among the leaders, he 
attended the sessions regularly. A follower of Paterson, who intro¬ 
duced the New Jersey Plan, Brearly opposed proportional represen¬ 
tation of the states and favored one vote for each of them in Congress. 
He also chaired the committee on postponed matters. 

Brearly’s subsequent career was short, for he had only 3 years to 
live. He presided at the New Jersey convention that ratified the 
Constitution in 1788, and served as a presidential elector in 1789. 
That same year, President Washington appointed him as a federal 
district judge, and he served in that capacity until his death. 

When free from his judicial duties, Brearly devoted much energy 
to lodge and church affairs. He was one of the leading members of 
the Masonic Order in New Jersey, as well as state vice president of 
the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of former officers of the 
Revolutionary War. In addition, he served as a delegate to the 
Episcopal General Conference (1786) and helped write the church’s 
prayer book. In 1783, following the death of his first wife, he had 
married Elizabeth Higbee. 

Brearly died in Trenton at the age of 45 in 1790. He was buried 
there at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church. 


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J 


acob Broom 

Delaware 


(No Portrait Available) 


J Broom was born in 1752 at Wilmington, Del., the eldest son of 
a blacksmith who prospered in farming. The youth was educated at 
home and probably at the local Old Academy. Although he followed 
his father into farming and also studied surveying, he was to make 
his career primarily in mercantile pursuits, including shipping and 
the import trade, and in real estate. In 1773 he married Rachel Pierce, 
who bore eight children. 

Broom was not a distinguished patriot. His only recorded service 
was the preparation of maps for George Washington before the Battle 
of Brandywine, Pa. In 1776, at 24 years of age, Broom became 
assistant burgess of Wilmington. Over the next several decades, he 
held that office six times and that of chief burgess four times, as well 
as those of borough assessor, president of the city “street regulators,” 
and justice of the peace for New Castle County. 

Broom sat in the state legislature in the years 1784-86 and 1788, 
during which time he was chosen as a delegate to the Annapolis 
Convention, but he did not attend. At the Constitutional Convention, 
he never missed a session and spoke on several occasions, but his 
role was only a minor one. 

After the convention, Broom returned to Wilmington, where in 
1795 he erected a home near the Brandywine River on the outskirts 
of the city. He was its first postmaster (1790-92) and continued to 
hold various local offices and to participate in a variety of economic 
endeavors. For many years, he chaired the board of directors of 
Wilmington’s Delaware Bank. He also operated a cotton mill, as well 
as a machine shop that produced and repaired mill machinery. He 
was involved, too, in an unsuccessful scheme to mine bog iron ore. 
A further interest was internal improvements: toll roads, canals, and 
bridges. 

Broom also found time for philanthropic and religious activities. 
He served on the board of trustees of the College of Wilmington and 
as a lay leader at Old Swedes Church. He died at the age of 58 in 
1810 while in Philadelphia on business and was buried there at Christ 
Church Burial Ground. 


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P ierce Butler 

South Carolina 
One of the most aris¬ 
tocratic delegates at the conven¬ 
tion, Butler was born in 1744 in 
County Carlow, Ireland. His father 
was Sir Richard Butler, member 
of Parliament and a baronet. 

Like so many younger sons of 
the British aristocracy who could 
not inherit their fathers’ estates 
because of primogeniture, Butler 
pursued a military career. He 
became a major in His Majesty’s 
29th Regiment and during the 
colonial unrest was posted to 
Boston in 1768 to quell distur¬ 
bances there. In 1771 he married 
Mary Middleton, daughter of a 
wealthy South Carolinian, and 
before long resigned his commission to take up a planter’s life in the 
Charleston area. The couple was to have at least one daughter. 

When the Revolution broke out, Butler took up the Whig cause. 
He was elected to the assembly in 1778, and the next year he served 
as adjutant general in the South Carolina militia. While in the legis¬ 
lature through most of the 1780s, for some reason he took over 
leadership of the democratic upcountry faction in the state and 
refused to support his own planter group. The War for Independence 
cost him much of his property, and his finances were so precarious 
for a time that he was forced to travel to Amsterdam to seek a 
personal loan. In 1786 the assembly appointed him to a commission 
charged with settling a state boundary dispute. 

The next year, Butler won election to both the Continental Con¬ 
gress (1787-88) and the Constitutional Convention. In the latter 
assembly, he was an outspoken nationalist who attended practically 
every session and was a key spokesman for the Madison-Wilson 
caucus. Butler also supported the interests of southern slaveholders. 
He served on the committee on postponed matters. 

On Butler’s return to South Carolina he defended the Constitution 
but did not participate in the ratifying convention. Service in the U.S. 
Senate (1789-96) followed. Although nominally a Federalist, he often 
crossed party lines. He supported Hamilton’s fiscal program but 
opposed Jay’s Treaty and Federalist judiciary and tariff measures. 



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Out of the Senate and back in South Carolina from 1797 to 1802, 
Butler was considered for but did not attain the governorship. He sat 
briefly in the Senate again in 1803-4 to fill out an unexpired term, 
and he once again demonstrated party independence. But, for the 
most part, his later career was spent as a wealthy planter. In his last 
years, he moved to Philadelphia, apparently to be near a daughter 
who had married a local physician. Butler died there in 1822 at the 
age of 77 and was buried in the yard of Christ Church. 


D aniel Carroll 

Maryland 

Daniel Carroll was a 
member of a prominent Maryland 
family of Irish descent. A col¬ 
lateral branch was led by Charles 
Carroll of Carrollton, signer of 
the Declaration of Independence. 

Daniel’s older brother was John 
Carroll, the first Roman Catholic 
bishop in the United States. 

Daniel was bom in 1730 at 
Upper Marlboro, Md. Befitting 
the son of a wealthy Roman 
Catholic family, he studied for 6 
years (1742-48) under the Jesuits 
at St. Omer’s in Flanders. Then, 
after a tour of Europe, he sailed 
home and soon married Eleanor Carroll, apparently a first cousin of 
Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Not much is known about the next two 
decades of his life except that he only reluctantly backed the War 
for Independence and remained out of the public eye. No doubt he 
lived the life of a gentleman planter. 

In 1781 Carroll entered the political arena. Elected to the Continen¬ 
tal Congress that year, he carried to Philadelphia the news that 
Maryland was at last ready to accede to the Articles of Confederation, 
to which he soon penned his name. During the decade, he also 
began a tour in the Maryland senate that was to span his lifetime and 
helped George Washington promote the Patowmack Company, a 
scheme to canalize the Potomac River so as to provide a transporta¬ 
tion link between the East and the trans-Appalachian West. 

Carroll did not arrive at the Constitutional Convention until July 9, 
but thereafter he attended quite regularly. He spoke about 20 times 



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during the debates and served on the committee on postponed 
matters. Returning to Maryland after the convention, he campaigned 
for ratification of the Constitution but was not a delegate to the state 
convention. 

In 1789 Carroll won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, 
where he voted for locating the Nation’s Capital on the banks of the 
Potomac and for Hamilton’s program for the federal assumption of 
state debts. In 1791 George Washington named his friend Carroll as 
one of three commissioners to survey and define the District of 
Columbia, where Carroll owned much land. Ill health caused him to 
resign this post 4 years later, and the next year at the age of 65 he 
died at his home near Rock Creek in Forest Glen, Md. He was buried 
there in St. John’s Catholic Cemetery. 


eorge Clymer 

Pennsylvania 
Clymer was orphaned in 
1740, only a year after his birth 
in Philadelphia. A wealthy uncle 
reared and informally educated 
him and advanced him from 
clerk to full-fledged partner in his 
mercantile firm, which on his 
death he bequeathed to his ward. 

Later Clymer merged operations 
with the Merediths, a prominent 
business family, and cemented the 
relationship by marrying his 
senior partner’s daughter, 

Elizabeth, in 1765. 

Motivated at least partly by the 
impact of British economic restric¬ 
tions on his business, Clymer 
early adopted the Revolutionary 
cause and was one of the first to 
recommend independence. He 
attended patriotic meetings, served on the Pennsylvania council of 
safety, and in 1773 headed a committee that forced the resignation 
of Philadelphia tea consignees appointed by Britain under the Tea 
Act. Inevitably, in light of his economic background, he channeled 
his energies into financial matters. In 1775-76 he acted as one of the 

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first two Continental treasurers, even personally underwriting the war 
by exchanging all his own specie for Continental currency. 

In the Continental Congress (1776-77 and 1780-82) the quiet and 
unassuming Clymer rarely spoke in debate but made his mark in 
committee efforts, especially those pertaining to commerce, finance, 
and military affairs. During the War for Independence, he also served 
on a series of commissions that conducted important field investiga¬ 
tions. In December 1776, when Congress fled from Philadelphia to 
Baltimore, he and George Walton and Robert Morris remained behind 
to carry on congressional business. Within a year, after their victory 
at the Battle of Brandywine, Pa. (September 11, 1777), British troops 
advancing on Philadelphia detoured for the purpose of vandalizing 
Clymer’s home in Chester County about 25 miles outside the city. 
His wife and children hid nearby in the woods. 

After a brief retirement following his last term in the Continental 
Congress, Clymer was reelected for the years 1784-88 to the Pennsyl¬ 
vania legislature, where he had also served part time in 1780-82 
while still in Congress. As a state legislator, he advocated a bicameral 
legislature and reform of the penal code and opposed capital punish¬ 
ment. At the Constitutional Convention, where he rarely missed a 
meeting, he spoke seldom but effectively and played a modest role 
in shaping the final document. 

The next phase of Clymer’s career consisted of service in the U.S. 
House of Representatives in the First Congress (1789-91), followed 
by appointment as collector of excise taxes on alcoholic beverages 
in Pennsylvania (1791-94). In 1795-96 he sat on a presidential 
commission that negotiated a treaty with the Cherokee and Creek 
Indians in Georgia. 

During his retirement, Clymer advanced various community 
projects, including the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture 
and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and served as the 
first president of the Philadelphia Bank. At the age of 73, in 1813, he 
died at Summerseat, an estate a few miles outside Philadelphia at 
Morrisville that he had purchased and moved to in 1806. His grave 
is in the Friends Meeting House Cemetery at Trenton, N.J. 


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SKETCHES 


W illiam Richardson 
Davie 

North Carolina 

One of the eight delegates bom 
outside of the Thirteen Colonies, 

Davie was born in Egremont, 

Cumberlandshire, England, on 
June 20, 1756. In 1763 Archibald 
Davie brought his son William to 
Waxhaw, S.C., where the boy’s 
maternal uncle, William Richard¬ 
son, a Presbyterian clergyman, 
adopted him. Davie attended 
Queen’s Museum College in Char¬ 
lotte, North Carolina, and gradu¬ 
ated from the College of New 
Jersey (later Princeton) in 1776. 

Davie’s law studies in Salisbury, 

N.C., were interrupted by military 
service, but he won his license to 
practice before county courts in 
1779 and in the superior courts 
in 1780. When the War for Independence broke out, he helped raise a 
troop of cavalry near Salisbury and eventually achieved the rank of 
colonel. While attached to Pulaski’s division, Davie was wounded 
leading a charge at Stono, near Charleston, on June 20, 1779. Early in 
1780 he raised another troop and operated mainly in western North 
Carolina. In January 1781 Davie was appointed commissary-general 
for the Carolina campaign. In this capacity he oversaw the collection 
of arms and supplies to Gen. Nathanael Greene’s army and the state 
militia. 

After the war, Davie embarked on his career as a lawyer, traveling 
the circuit in North Carolina. In 1782 he married Sarah Jones, the 
daughter of his former commander, Gen. Allen Jones, and settled in 
Halifax. His legal knowledge and ability won him great respect, and 
his presentation of arguments was admired. Between 1786 and 1798 
Davie represented Halifax in the North Carolina legislature. There he 
was the principal agent behind that body’s actions to revise and codify 
state laws, send representatives to the Annapolis and Philadelphia 
conventions, cede Tennessee to the Union, and fix disputed state 
boundaries. 

During the Constitutional Convention Davie favored plans for a 
strong central government. He was a member of the committee that 





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considered the question of representation in Congress and swung the 
North Carolina delegation’s vote in favor of the Great Compromise. 
He favored election of senators and presidential electors by the 
legislature and insisted on counting slaves in determining represen¬ 
tation. Though he left the convention on August 13, before its 
adjournment, Davie fought hard for the Constitution’s ratification and 
took a prominent part in the North Carolina convention. 

The political and military realms were not the only ones in which 
Davie left his mark. The University of North Carolina, of which he was 
the chief founder, stands as an enduring reminder of Davie’s interest 
in education. Davie selected the location, instructors, and a curriculum 
that included the literary and social sciences as well as mathematics 
and classics. In 1810 the trustees conferred upon him the title of 
“Father of the University” and in the next year granted him the degree 
of Doctor of Laws. 

Davie became Governor of North Carolina in 1798. His career also 
turned back briefly to the military when President John Adams 
appointed him a brigadier general in the U.S. Army that same year. 
Davie later served as a peace commissioner to France in 1799. 

Davie stood as a candidate for Congress in 1803 but met defeat. In 
1805, after the death of his wife, Davie retired from politics to his 
plantation, “Tivoli,” in Chester County, South Carolina. In 1813 he 
declined an appointment as major-general from President Madison. 
Davie was 64 years old when he died on November 29, 1820, at 
“Tivoli,” and he was buried in the Old Waxhaw Presbyterian Church¬ 
yard in northern Lancaster County. 


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BIOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


J onathan Dayton 

New Jersey 

Dayton was born at Elizabeth¬ 
town (present Elizabeth), N.J., in 
1760. His father was a storekeeper 
who was also active in local and 
state politics. The youth obtained 
a good education, graduating 
from the College of New Jer¬ 
sey (later Princeton) in 1776. He 
immediately entered the Conti¬ 
nental Army and saw extensive 
action. Achieving the rank of cap¬ 
tain by the age of 19 and serving 
under his father, Gen. Elias Dayton, and the Marquis de Lafayette, 
he was a prisoner of the British for a time and participated in the 
Battle of Yorktown, Va. 

After the war, Dayton returned home, studied law, and estab¬ 
lished a practice. During the 1780s, he divided his time between 
land speculation, legal practice, and politics. He sat in the assembly 
in 1786-87. In the latter year, he was chosen as a delegate to the 
Constitutional Convention after the leaders of his political faction, his 
father and his patron, Abraham Clark, declined to attend. Dayton did 
not arrive at Philadelphia until June 21 but thereafter faithfully took 
part in the proceedings. He spoke with moderate frequency during 
the debates and, though objecting to some provisions of the Con¬ 
stitution, signed it. 

After sitting in the Continental Congress in 1788, Dayton became 
a foremost Federalist legislator in the new government. Although 
elected as a representative, he did not serve in the First Congress in 
1789, preferring instead to become a member of the New Jersey 
council and speaker of the state assembly. In 1791, however, he 
entered the U.S. House of Representatives (1791-99), becoming 
Speaker in the Fourth and Fifth Congresses. During this period, he 
backed Hamilton’s fiscal program, suppression of the Whisky Rebel¬ 
lion, Jay’s Treaty, and a host of other Federalist measures. 

On the personal side, in 1795 Dayton purchased Boxwood Hall as 
his home in Elizabethtown and resided there until his death. He was 
elevated to the U.S. Senate (1799-1805). He supported the Louisiana 
Purchase (1803) and, in conformance with his Federalist views, 
opposed the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801. 

In 1806 illness prevented Dayton from accompanying Aaron Burr’s 
abortive expedition to the Southwest, where the latter apparently 



1 3 8 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


intended to conquer Spanish lands and create an empire. Subse¬ 
quently indicted for treason, Dayton was not prosecuted but could 
not salvage his national political career. He remained popular in New 
Jersey, however, continuing to hold local offices and sitting in the 
assembly (1814-15). 

In 1824 the 63-year-old Dayton played host to Lafayette during his 
triumphal tour of the United States, and his death at Elizabeth later 
that year may have been hastened by the exertion and excitement. 
He was laid to rest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in his hometown. 
Because he owned 250,000 acres of Ohio land between the Big and 
Little Miami Rivers, the city of Dayton, was named after him—his major 
monument. He had married Susan Williamson, but the date of their 
wedding is unknown. They had two daughters. 


ohn Dickinson 

Delaware 

Dickinson, “Penman of the 
Revolution,” was born in 1732 at 
Crosiadore estate, near the village 
of Trappe in Talbot County, Md. 

He was the second son of 
prosperous farmer Samuel and 
Mary (Cadwalader) Dickinson, 
his second wife. In 1740 the 
family moved to Kent County 
near Dover, Del., where private 
tutors educated the youth. In 
1750 he began to study law with 
John Moland in Philadelphia. In 
1753 Dickinson went to England 
to continue his studies at Lon¬ 
don’s Middle Temple. Four years later, he returned to Philadelphia 
and became a prominent lawyer there. In 1770 he married Mary 
Norris, daughter of a wealthy merchant. The couple was to have at 
least one daughter. 

By that time, Dickinson’s superior education and talents had 
propelled him into politics. In 1760 he had served in the assembly 
of the Three Lower Counties (Delaware), where he held the speaker- 
ship. Combining his Pennsylvania and Delaware careers in 1762, he 
won a seat as a Philadelphia member in the Pennsylvania assembly 
and sat there again in 1764. He became the leader of the conservative 
side in the colony’s political battles. His defense of the proprietary 




1 3 9 



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SKETCHES 


governor against the faction led by Benjamin Franklin hurt his 
popularity but earned him respect for his integrity. Nevertheless, as 
an immediate consequence, he lost his legislative seat in 1764. 

Meantime, the struggle between the colonies and the mother 
country had waxed strong and Dickinson had emerged in the 
forefront of Revolutionary thinkers. In the debates over the Stamp Act 
(1765), he played a key part. That year, he wrote The Late Regulations 
Respecting the British Colonies. . . Considered ' an influential pamphlet 
that urged Americans to seek repeal of the act by pressuring British 
merchants. Accordingly, the Pennsylvania legislature appointed him 
as a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress, whose resolutions he 
drafted. 

In 1767-68 Dickinson wrote a series of newspaper articles in the 
Pennsylvania Chronicle that came to be known collectively as Letters 
from a Farmer in Pennsylvania. They attacked British taxation policy 
and urged resistance to unjust laws, but also emphasized the pos¬ 
sibility of a peaceful resolution. So popular were the Letters in the 
colonies that Dickinson received an honorary LL.D. from the College 
of New Jersey (later Princeton) and public thanks from a meeting in 
Boston. In 1768, responding to the Townshend Duties, he cham¬ 
pioned rigorous colonial resistance in the form of nonimportation 
and nonexportation agreements. 

In 1771, back in the Pennsylvania legislature, Dickinson drafted a 
petition to the king that was unanimously approved. Because of his 
continued opposition to the use of force, however, by 1774 he had 
lost much of his popularity. Particularly resenting the tactics of New 
England leaders, that year he refused to support aid requested by 
Boston in the wake of the Intolerable Acts, though he sympathized 
with the city’s plight. Reluctantly, Dickinson was drawn into the 
Revolutionary fray. In 1774 he chaired the Philadelphia committee of 
correspondence and briefly sat in the First Continental Congress, 
representing Pennsylvania. 

Throughout 1775, though supporting the Whig cause, Dickinson 
continued to work for peace. He drew up petitions asking the king 
for redress of grievances. At the same time, he chaired a Philadelphia 
committee of safety and defense and held a colonelcy in the first 
battalion recruited in Philadelphia to defend the city. 

After Lexington and Concord, Dickinson continued to hope for a 
peaceful solution. In the Second Continental Congress (1775-76), 
still a representative of Pennsylvania, he drew up the Declaration of 
the Causes of Taking Up Arms. In the Pennsylvania assembly, he 
drafted an authorization to send delegates to Congress in 1776. It 


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directed them to seek redress of grievances but ordered them to 
oppose separation of the colonies from Britain. 

By that time, Dickinson’s moderate position had left him in the 
minority. In Congress he voted against the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence (1776) and refused to sign it. Nevertheless, he then became 
one of only two congressional members (with Thomas McKean) at 
the time who entered the military, but when he was not reelected 
he resigned his brigadier general’s commission and withdrew to his 
estate in Delaware. Later in 1776, though reelected to Congress by 
his new constituency, he declined to serve and also resigned from 
the Pennsylvania assembly. He may have taken part in the Battle of 
Brandywine, Pa. (September 11, 1777), as a private in a special 
Delaware force but otherwise saw no further military action. 

Dickinson came out of retirement to take a seat in the Continental 
Congress (1779-80), where he signed the Articles of Confederation; 
earlier he had headed the committee that had drafted them. In 1781 
he became president of Delaware’s Supreme Executive Council. 
Shortly thereafter, he moved back to Philadelphia. There, he became 
president of Pennsylvania (1782-85). In 1786, representing Delaware, 
he attended and chaired the Annapolis Convention. 

The next year, Delaware sent Dickinson to the Constitutional 
Convention. He missed a number of sessions and left early because 
of illness, but he made worthwhile contributions, including service 
on the committee on postponed matters. Although he resented the 
forcefulness of Madison and the other nationalists, he helped en¬ 
gineer the Great Compromise and wrote public letters supporting 
constitutional ratification. Because of his premature departure from 
the convention, he did not actually sign the Constitution but 
authorized his friend and fellow-delegate George Read to do so for 
him. 

Dickinson lived for two decades more but held no public offices. 
Instead, he devoted himself to writing on politics and in 1801 
published two volumes of his collected works. He died at Wilmington 
in 1808 at the age of 75 and was entombed in the Friends Burial 
Ground. 


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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


O liver Ellsworth 

Connecticut 

Oliver Ellsworth was 
born on April 29, 1745, in Wind¬ 
sor, Conn., to Capt. David and 
Jemima Ellsworth. He entered 
Yale in 1762 but transferred to 
the College of New Jersey (later 
Princeton) at the end of his sec¬ 
ond year. He continued to study 
theology and received his A.B. 
degree after 2 years. Soon after¬ 
ward, however, Ellsworth turned 
to the law. After 4 years of study, 
he was admitted to the bar in 
1771. The next year Ellsworth 
married Abigail Wolcott. 

From a slow start Ellsworth 
built up a prosperous law prac¬ 
tice. His reputation as an able and 
industrious jurist grew, and in 
1777 Ellsworth became Connect¬ 
icut’s state attorney for Hartford County. That same year he was 
chosen as one of Connecticut’s representatives in the Continental 
Congress. He served on various committees during six annual terms 
until 1783. Ellsworth was also active in his state’s efforts during the 
Revolution. As a member of the Committee of the Pay Table, Oliver 
Ellsworth was one of the five men who supervised Connecticut’s war 
expenditures. In 1779 he assumed greater duties as a member of the 
council of safety, which, with the governor, controlled all military 
measures for the state. 

When the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia in 1787, 
Ellsworth once again represented Connecticut and took an active part 
in the proceedings. During debate on the Great Compromise, 
Ellsworth proposed that the basis of representation in the legislative 
branch remain by state, as under the Articles of Confederation. He 
also left his mark through an amendment to change the word 
“national” to “United States” in a resolution. Thereafter, “United 
States” was the title used in the convention to designate the govern¬ 
ment. 

Ellsworth also served on the committee of five that prepared the 
first draft of the Constitution. Ellsworth favored the three-fifths 
compromise on the enumeration of slaves but opposed the abolition 



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of the foreign slave trade. Though he left the convention near the 
end of August and did not sign the final document, he urged its 
adoption back in Connecticut and wrote the Letters of a Landholder 
to promote its ratification. 

Ellsworth served as one of Connecticut’s first two senators in the 
new federal government between 1789 and 1796. In the Senate he 
chaired the committee that framed the bill organizing the federal 
judiciary and helped to work out the organization and practical details 
necessary to run a new government. Among Ellsworth’s other achieve¬ 
ments in Congress were framing the measure that admitted North 
Carolina to the Union, devising the non-intercourse act that forced 
Rhode Island to join, drawing up the bill to regulate the consular 
service, and serving on the committee that considered Alexander 
Hamilton’s plan for funding the national debt and for incorporating 
the Bank of the United States. 

In the spring of 1796 he was appointed Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court and also served as commissioner to France in 1799 
and 1800. Upon his return to America in early 1801, Ellsworth retired 
from public life and lived in Windsor, Conn. There he died, on 
November 26, 1807, and he was buried in the cemetery of the First 
Church of Windsor. 


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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


W illiam Few 

Georgia 

Few was born in 1748. 

His father’s family had emigrated 
from England to Pennsylvania in 
the 1680s, but the father had sub¬ 
sequently moved to Maryland, 
where he married and settled on 
a farm near Baltimore. William 
was bom there. He encountered 
much hardship and received min¬ 
imal schooling. When he was 10 
years of age, his father, seeking 
better opportunity, moved his 
family to North Carolina. 

In 1771 Few, his father, and a 
brother associated themselves 
with the “Regulators,” a group of 
frontiersmen who opposed the 
royal governor. As a result, the 
brother was hanged, the Few 
family farm was destroyed, and 
the father was forced to move once again, this time to Georgia. 
William remained behind, helping to settle his father’s affairs, until 
1776 when he joined his family near Wrightsboro, Ga. About this 
time, he won admittance to the bar, based on earlier informal study, 
and set up practice in Augusta. 

When the War for Independence began, Few enthusiastically 
aligned himself with the Whig cause. Although largely self-educated, 
he soon proved his capacity for leadership and won a lieutenant- 
colonelcy in the dragoons. In addition, he entered politics. He was 
elected to the Georgia provincial congress of 1776 and during the 
war twice served in the assembly, in 1777 and 1779. During the same 
period, he also sat on the state executive council besides holding the 
positions of surveyor-general and Indian commissioner. He also 
served in the Continental Congress (1780-88), during which time he 
was reelected to the Georgia assembly (1783). 

Four years later, Few was appointed as one of six state delegates 
to the Constitutional Convention, two of whom never attended and 
two others of whom did not stay for the duration. Few himself missed 
large segments of the proceedings, being absent during all of July 
and part of August because of congressional service, and never made 



1 4 4 




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


a speech. Nonetheless, he contributed nationalist votes at critical 
times. Furthermore, as a delegate to the last sessions of the Continen¬ 
tal Congress, he helped steer the Constitution past its first obstacle, 
approval by Congress. And he attended the state ratifying convention. 

Few became one of his state’s first U.S. senators (1789-93). When 
his term ended, he headed back home and served again in the 
assembly. In 1796 he received an appointment as a federal judge for 
the Georgia circuit. At 52 years of age in 1799, for some reason he 
resigned his judgeship and moved to New York City. 

Few’s career continued to blossom. He served 4 years in the 
legislature (1802-5) and then as inspector of prisons (1802-10), 
alderman (1813-14), and U.S. commissioner of loans (1804). From 
1804 to 1814 he held a directorship at the Manhattan Bank and later 
the presidency of City Bank. A devout Methodist, he also donated 
generously to philanthropic causes. 

When Few died in 1828 at the age of 80 in Fishkill-on-the-Hudson 
(present Beacon), he was survived by his wife (bom Catherine 
Nicholson) and three daughters. Originally buried in the yard of the 
local Reformed Dutch Church, his body was later reinterred at St. 
Paul’s Church, Augusta, Ga. 


T homas Fitzsimons 

Pennsylvania (No Portrait Available) 

Fitzsimons (FitzSimons; Fitzsimmons) was bom in Ireland in 
1741. Coming to America about 1760, he pursued a mercantile career 
in Philadelphia. The next year, he married Catherine Meade, the 
daughter of a prominent local merchant, Robert Meade, and not long 
afterward went into business with one of his brothers-in-law. The firm 
of George Meade and Company soon became one of the leading 
commercial houses in the city and specialized in the West India trade. 

When the Revolution erupted, Fitzsimons enthusiastically endorsed 
the Whig position. During the war, he commanded a company of 
militia (1776-77). He also sat on the Philadelphia committee of 
correspondence, council of safety, and navy board. His firm provided 
supplies and “fire” ships to the military forces and, toward the end 
of the war, donated £5,000 to the Continental Army. 

In 1782-83 Fitzsimons entered politics as a delegate to the Con¬ 
tinental Congress. In the latter year, he became a member of the 
Pennsylvania council of censors and served as a legislator (1786-89). 
His attendance at the Constitutional Convention was regular, but he 


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CAL 


SKETCHES 


did not make any outstanding contributions to the proceedings. He 
was, however, a strong nationalist. 

After the convention, Fitzsimons continued to demonstrate his 
nationalistic proclivities as a three-term U.S. representative (1789-95). 
He allied himself closely with the program of Hamilton and the 
emerging Federalist Party. Once again demonstrating his commercial 
orientation, he advocated a protective tariff and retirement of the 
national debt. 

Fitzsimons spent most of the remainder of his life in private 
business, though he retained an interest in public affairs. His views 
remained essentially Federalist. During the maritime difficulties in the 
late 1790s, he urged retaliation against British and French interference 
with American shipping. In the first decade of the 19th century, he 
vigorously opposed Jefferson’s embargo of 1807-9. In 1810, again 
clashing with the Jeffersonians, he championed the recharter of the 
First United States Bank. 

But Fitzsimons’ prominence stemmed from his business leader¬ 
ship. In 1781 he had been one of the founders of the Bank of North 
America. He also helped organize and held a directorship in the 
Insurance Company of North America and several times acted as 
president of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. His financial 
affairs, like those somewhat earlier of his associate and fellow-signer 
Robert Morris, took a disastrous turn in 1805. He later regained some 
of his affluence, but his reputation suffered. 

Despite these troubles, Fitzsimons never ceased his philanthropy. 
He was an outstanding supporter of Philadelphia’s St. Augustine’s 
Roman Catholic Church. He also strived to improve public education 
in the commonwealth and served as trustee of the University of 
Pennsylvania. 

Fitzsimons died at Philadelphia in 1811 after seven decades of life. 
His tomb is there in the graveyard at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic 
Church, which is in present Independence National Historical Park. 


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B enjamin Franklin 

Pennsylvania 
Franklin was bom in 1706 
at Boston. He was the tenth son 
of a soap- and candle-maker. He 
received some formal education 
but was principally self-taught. Af¬ 
ter serving an apprenticeship to 
his father between the ages of 10 
and 12, he went to work for his 
half-brother James, a printer. In 
1721 the latter founded the New 
England Courant, the fourth 
newspaper in the colonies. Ben¬ 
jamin secretly contributed to it 14 
essays, his first published writ¬ 
ings. 

In 1723, because of dissension 
with his half-brother, Franklin 
moved to Philadelphia, where he 
obtained employment as a print¬ 
er. He spent only a year there 
and then sailed to London for 2 more years. Back in Philadelphia, he 
rose rapidly in the printing industry. He published The Pennsylvania 
Gazette (1730-48), which had been founded by another man in 1728, 
but his most successful literary venture was the annual Poor Richard's 
Almanac (1733-58). It won a popularity in the colonies second only 
to the Bible, and its fame eventually spread to Europe. 

Meantime, in 1730 Franklin had taken a common-law wife, 
Deborah Read, who was to bear him a son and daughter, and he also 
apparently had children with another nameless woman out of wed¬ 
lock. By 1748 he had achieved financial independence and gained 
recognition for his philanthropy and the stimulus he provided to such 
civic causes as libraries, educational institutions, and hospitals. Ener¬ 
getic and tireless, he also found time to pursue his interest in science, 
as well as to enter politics. 

Franklin served as clerk (1736-31) and member (1751-64) of the 
colonial legislature and as deputy postmaster of Philadelphia 
(1737-53) and deputy postmaster general of the colonies (1753-74). 
In addition, he represented Pennsylvania at the Albany Congress 
(1754), called to unite the colonies during the French and Indian 
War. The congress adopted his “Plan of Union,” but the colonial 
assemblies rejected it because it encroached on their powers. 



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During the years 1757-62 and 1764-75, Franklin resided in 
England, originally in the capacity of agent for Pennsylvania and later 
for Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. During the latter period, 
which coincided with the growth of colonial unrest, he underwent a 
political metamorphosis. Until then a contented Englishman in out¬ 
look, primarily concerned with Pennsylvania provincial politics, he 
distrusted popular movements and saw little purpose to be served in 
carrying principle to extremes. Until the issue of parliamentary taxa¬ 
tion undermined the old alliances, he led the Quaker party attack on 
the Anglican proprietary party and its Presbyterian frontier allies. His 
purpose throughout the years at London in fact had been displace¬ 
ment of the Penn family administration by royal authority—the con¬ 
version of the province from a proprietary to a royal colony. 

It was during the Stamp Act crisis that Franklin evolved from leader 
of a shattered provincial party’s faction to celebrated spokesman at 
London for American rights. Although as agent for Pennsylvania he 
opposed by every conceivable means the enactment of the bill in 
1765, he did not at first realize the depth of colonial hostility. He 
regarded passage as unavoidable and preferred to submit to it while 
actually working for its repeal. 

Franklin’s nomination of a friend and political ally as stamp dis¬ 
tributor for Pennsylvania, coupled with his apparent acceptance of 
the legislation, armed his proprietary opponents with explosive 
issues. Their energetic exploitation of them endangered his reputa¬ 
tion at home until reliable information was published demonstrating 
his unabated opposition to the act. For a time, mob resentment 
threatened his family and new home in Philadelphia until his trades¬ 
men supporters rallied. Subsequently, Franklin’s defense of the 
American position in the House of Commons during the debates over 
the Stamp Act’s repeal restored his prestige at home. 

Franklin returned to Philadelphia in May 1775, and immediately 
became a distinguished member of the Continental Congress. Thir¬ 
teen months later, he served on the committee that drafted the 
Declaration of Independence. He subsequently contributed to the 
government in other important ways, including service as postmaster 
general, and took over the duties of president of the Pennsylvania 
constitutional convention. 

But, within less than a year and a half after his return, the aged 
statesman set sail once again for Europe, beginning a career as 
diplomat that would occupy him for most of the rest of his life. In 
the years 1776-79, as one of three commissioners, he directed the 
negotiations that led to treaties of commerce and alliance with 
France, where the people adulated him, but he and the other 


1 4 8 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


commissioners squabbled constantly. While he was sole commis¬ 
sioner to France (1779-85), he and John Jay and John Adams 
negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the War for 
Independence. 

Back in the United States, in 1785 Franklin became president of 
the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. At the Constitutional 
Convention, though he did not approve of many aspects of the 
finished document and was hampered by his age and ill-health, he 
missed few if any sessions, lent his prestige, soothed passions, and 
compromised disputes. 

In his twilight years, working on his Autobiography ; Franklin could 
look back on a fruitful life as the toast of two continents. Energetic 
nearly to the last, in 1787 he was elected as first president of the 
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery—a cause 
to which he had committed himself as early as the 1730s. His final 
public act was signing a memorial to Congress recommending dis¬ 
solution of the slavery system. Shortly thereafter, in 1790 at the age 
of 84, Franklin passed away in Philadelphia and was laid to rest in 
Christ Church Burial Ground. 


lbridge Gerry 

Massachusetts 
Gerry was bom in 1744 at 
Marblehead, Mass., the third of 12 
children. His mother was the 
daughter of a Boston merchant; 
his father, a wealthy and politi¬ 
cally active merchant-shipper who 
had once been a sea captain. 
Upon graduating from Harvard in 
1762, Gerry joined his father and 
two brothers in the family busi¬ 
ness, exporting dried codfish to 
Barbados and Spain. He entered 
the colonial legislature (1772-74), 
where he came under the in¬ 
fluence of Samuel Adams, and 
took part in the Marblehead and 
Massachusetts committees of cor¬ 
respondence. When Parliament 
closed Boston harbor in June 
1774, Marblehead became a major 




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port of entry for supplies donated by patriots throughout the colonies 
to relieve Bostonians, and Gerry helped transport the goods. 

Between 1774 and 1776 Gerry attended the first and second 
provincial congresses; served with Samuel Adams and John Hancock 
on the council of safety; and, as chairman of the committee of supply, 
a job for which his merchant background ideally suited him, raised 
troops and dealt with military logistics. On the night of April 18, 1775, 
Gerry attended a meeting of the council of safety at an inn in 
Menotomy (Arlington), between Cambridge and Lexington, and 
barely escaped the British troops marching on Lexington and Con¬ 
cord. 

In 1776 Gerry entered the Continental Congress, where his con¬ 
gressional specialities were military and financial matters. In Congress 
and throughout his career his actions often appeared contradictory. 
He earned the nickname “soldiers’ friend” for his advocacy of better 
pay and equipment, yet he vacillated on the issue of pensions; 
despite his disapproval of standing armies, he recommended long¬ 
term enlistments. 

Until 1779 Gerry sat on and sometimes presided over the congres¬ 
sional board that regulated Continental finances. After a quarrel over 
the price schedule for suppliers, Gerry, himself a supplier, walked 
out of Congress. Although nominally a member, he did not reappear 
for 3 years. During the interim, he engaged in trade and privateering 
and served in the lower house of the Massachusetts legislature. 

Back in Congress in the years 1783-85, Gerry numbered among 
those representatives who had possessed talent as Revolutionary 
agitators and wartime leaders but who could not effectually cope with 
the painstaking task of stabilizing the national government. He was 
experienced and conscientious but created many enemies with his 
lack of humor, suspicion of the motives of others, and obsessive fear 
of political and military tyranny. In 1786, the year after leaving 
Congress, he retired from business, married Ann Thompson, and took 
a seat in the state legislature. 

Gerry was one of the most vocal delegates at the Constitutional 
Convention of 1787. He presided as chairman of the committee that 
produced the Great Compromise but disliked the compromise itself. 
He antagonized nearly everyone by his inconsistency and, according 
to a colleague, “objected to everything he did not propose.” At first 
an advocate of a strong central government, Gerry ultimately rejected 
and refused to sign the Constitution because it lacked a bill of rights 
and because he deemed it a threat to republicanism. He led the drive 
against ratification in Massachusetts and denounced the document as 
“full of vices.” Among the vices he listed inadequate representation 


1 5 0 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


of the people, dangerously ambiguous legislative powers, the blend¬ 
ing of the executive and the legislative, and the danger of an 
oppressive judiciary. Gerry did see some merit in the Constitution, 
though, and believed that its flaws could be remedied through 
amendments. In 1789, after he announced his intention to support 
the Constitution, he was elected to the First Congress where, to the 
chagrin of the Antifederalists, he championed Federalist policies. 

Gerry left Congress for the last time in 1793 and retired for 4 years. 
During this period he came to mistrust the aims of the Federalists, 
particularly their attempts to nurture an alliance with Britain, and 
sided with the pro-French Democratic-Republicans. In 1797 President 
John Adams appointed him as the only non-Federalist member of a 
three-man commission charged with negotiating a reconciliation with 
France, which was on the brink of war with the United States. During 
the ensuing XYZ affair (1797-98), Gerry tarnished his reputation. 
Talleyrand, the French foreign minister, led him to believe that his 
presence in France would prevent war, and Gerry lingered on long 
after the departure of John Marshall and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, 
the two other commissioners. Finally, the embarrassed Adams 
recalled him, and Gerry met severe censure from the Federalists upon 
his return. 

In 1800-1803 Gerry, never very popular among the Massachusetts 
electorate because of his aristocratic haughtiness, met defeat in four 
bids for the Massachusetts governorship but finally triumphed in 
1810. Near the end of his two terms, scarred by partisan controversy, 
the Democratic-Republicans passed a redistricting measure to ensure 
their domination of the state senate. In response, the Federalists 
heaped ridicule on Gerry and coined the pun “gerrymander” to 
describe the salamander-like shape of one of the redistricted areas. 

Despite his advanced age, frail health, and the threat of poverty 
brought on by neglect of personal affairs, Gerry served as James 
Madison’s Vice President in 1813. In the fall of 1814, the 70-year old 
politician collapsed on his way to the Senate and died. He left his 
wife, who was to live until 1849, the last surviving widow of a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, as well as three sons and four 
daughters. Gerry is buried in Congressional Cemetery at Washington, 
D.C. 


1 5 1 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


N Nicholas Gilman 

New Hampshire 
Member of a distin¬ 
guished New Hampshire family 
and second son in a family of 
eight, Nicholas Gilman was born 
at Exeter in 1755. He received his 
education in local schools and 
worked at his father’s general 
store. When the War for Indepen¬ 
dence began, he enlisted in the 
New Hampshire element of the 
Continental Army, soon won a 
captaincy, and served throughout 
the war. 

Gilman returned home, again 
helped his father in the store, 
and immersed himself in politics. 

In the period 1786-88 he sat in 
the Continental Congress, though his attendance record was poor. 
In 1787 he represented New Hampshire at the Constitutional Conven¬ 
tion. He did not arrive at Philadelphia until July 21, by which time 
much major business had already occurred. Never much of a debater, 
he made no speeches and played only a minor part in the delibera¬ 
tions. He did, however, serve on the committee on postponed matters. 
He was also active in obtaining New Hampshire’s acceptance of the 
Constitution and in shepherding it through the Continental Congress. 

Gilman later became a prominent Federalist politician. He served 
in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1789 until 1797; and in 
1793 and 1797 was a presidential elector. He also sat in the New 
Hampshire legislature in 1795, 1802, and 1804, and in the years 
1805-8 and 1811-14 he held the office of state treasurer. 

Meantime, Gilman’s political philosophy had begun to drift toward 
the Democratic-Republicans. In 1802, when he was defeated for the 
U.S. Senate, President Jefferson appointed him as a bankruptcy com¬ 
missioner, and 2 years later as a Democratic-Republican he won 
election to the U.S. Senate. He was still serving there when he passed 
away at Philadelphia, while on his way home from the Nation’s 
Capital, in 1814 at the age of 58. He is interred at the Winter Street 
Cemetery at Exeter. 



1 5 2 




B IOGRAPHICA 


SKETCHES 


N athaniel Gorham 

Massachusetts 
Gorham, an eldest child, 
was bom in 1738 at Charlestown, 

Mass., into an old Bay Colony 
family of modest means. His 
father operated a packet boat. 

The youth’s education was mini¬ 
mal. When he was about 13 years 
of age, he was apprenticed to a 
New London, Conn., merchant. 

Quitting in 1759, he returned to 
his hometown and established a 
business, which quickly succeeded. 

In 1763 he wed Rebecca Call, 
who was to bear nine children. 

Gorham began his political 
career as a public notary but 
soon won election to the colonial 
legislature (1771-75). During the 
Revolution, he unswervingly 
backed the Whigs. He was a 
delegate to the provincial congress (1774-75), member of the Mas¬ 
sachusetts Board of War (1778-81), delegate to the constitutional 
convention (1779-80), and representative in both the upper (1780) 
and lower (1781-87) houses of the legislature, including speaker of 
the latter in 1781, 1782, and 1785. In the last year, though he 
apparently lacked formal legal training, he began a judicial career as 
judge of the Middlesex County court of common pleas (1785-96). 
During this same period, he sat on the Governor’s Council (1788-89). 

During the war, British troops had ravaged much of Gorham’s 
property, though by privateering and speculation he managed to 
recoup most of his fortune. Despite these pressing business concerns 
and his state political and judicial activities, he also served the nation. 
He was a member of the Continental Congress (1782-83 and 
1785-87), from June 1786 until January 1787 holding the office of 
president. 

The next year, at age 49, Gorham attended the Constitutional 
Convention. A moderate nationalist, he played an influential part in 
the sessions, all of which he attended. He spoke often, acted as 
chairman of the committee of the whole, and sat on the committee 
of detail. As a delegate to the Massachusetts ratifying convention, he 
stood behind the Constitution. 



1 3 3 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Some unhappy years followed. Gorham did not serve in the new 
government he had helped to create. In 1788 he and Oliver Phelps 
of Windsor, Conn., and possibly others, contracted to purchase from 
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 6 million acres of unimproved 
land in western New York. The price was $1 million in devalued 
Massachusetts scrip. Gorham and Phelps quickly succeeded in clear¬ 
ing Indian title to 2,600,000 acres in the eastern section of the grant 
and sold much of it to settlers. Problems soon arose, however. 
Massachusetts scrip rose dramatically in value, enormously swelling 
the purchase price of the vast tract. By 1790 the two men were unable 
to meet their payments. The result was a financial crisis that led to 
Gorham’s insolvency—and a fall from the heights of Boston society 
and political esteem. 

Gorham died in 1796 at the age of 58 and is buried at the Phipps 
Street Cemetery in Charlestown, Mass. 


lexander Hamilton 

New York 

Hamilton was born in 
1757 on the island of Nevis, in 
the Leeward group, British West 
Indies. He was the illegitimate 
son of a common-law marriage 
between a poor itinerant Scot¬ 
tish merchant of aristocratic de¬ 
scent and an English-French 
Huguenot mother who was a 
planter’s daughter. In 1766, after 
the father had moved his family 
elsewhere in the Leewards to St. 

Croix in the Danish (now United 
States) Virgin Islands, he returned 
to St. Kitts while his wife and 
two sons remained on St. Croix. 

The mother, who opened a 
small store to make ends meet, and a Presbyterian clergyman pro¬ 
vided Hamilton with a basic education, and he learned to speak 
fluent French. About the time of his mother’s death in 1768, he be¬ 
came an apprentice clerk at Christiansted in a mercantile establish¬ 
ment, whose proprietor became one of his benefactors. Recognizing 
his ambition and superior intelligence, they raised a fund for 
his education. 




1 5 4 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


In 1772, bearing letters of introduction, Hamilton traveled to New 
York City. Patrons he met there arranged for him to attend Barber’s 
Academy at Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), N.J. During this time, 
he met and stayed for a while at the home of William Livingston, 
who would one day be a fellow signer of the Constitution. Late the 
next year, 1773, Hamilton entered King’s College (later Columbia 
College and University) in New York City, but the Revolution inter¬ 
rupted his studies. 

Although not yet 20 years of age, in 1774-75 Hamilton wrote 
several widely read pro-Whig pamphlets. Right after the war broke 
out, he accepted an artillery captaincy and fought in the principal 
campaigns of 1776-77. In the latter year, winning the rank of 
lieutenant colonel, he joined the staff of General Washington as 
secretary and aide-de-camp and soon became his close confidant as 
well. 

In 1780 Hamilton wed New Yorker Elizabeth Schuyler, whose 
family was rich and politically powerful; they were to have eight 
children. In 1781, after some disagreements with Washington, he took 
a command position under Lafayette in the Yorktown, Va., campaign 
(1781). He resigned his commission that November. 

Hamilton then read law at Albany and quickly entered practice, but 
public service soon attracted him. He was elected to the Continental 
Congress in 1782-83. In the latter year, he established a law office 
in New York City. Because of his interest in strengthening the central 
government, he represented his state at the Annapolis Convention in 
1786, where he urged the calling of the Constitutional Convention. 

In 1787 Hamilton served in the legislature, which appointed him 
as a delegate to the convention. He played a surprisingly small part 
in the debates, apparently because he was frequently absent on legal 
business, his extreme nationalism put him at odds with most of the 
delegates, and he was frustrated by the conservative views of his two 
fellow delegates from New York. He did, however, sit on the com¬ 
mittee of style, and he was the only one of the three delegates from 
his state who signed the finished document. Hamilton’s part in New 
York’s ratification the next year was substantial, though he felt the 
Constitution was deficient in many respects. Against determined 
opposition, he waged a strenuous and successful campaign, including 
collaboration with John Jay and James Madison in writing The 
Federalist. In 1787 Hamilton was again elected to the Continental 
Congress. 

When the new government got underway in 1789, Hamilton won 
the position of Secretary of the Treasury. He began at once to place 
the nation’s disorganized finances on a sound footing. In a series of 


1 5 5 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


reports (1790-91), he presented a program not only to stabilize 
national finances but also to shape the future of the country as a 
powerful, industrial nation. He proposed establishment of a national 
bank, funding of the national debt, assumption of state war debts, 
and the encouragement of manufacturing. 

Hamilton’s policies soon brought him into conflict with Jefferson 
and Madison. Their disputes with him over his pro-business economic 
program, sympathies for Great Britain, disdain for the common man, 
and opposition to the principles and excesses of the French revolu¬ 
tion contributed to the formation of the first U.S. party system. It 
pitted Hamilton and the Federalists against Jefferson and Madison and 
the Democratic-Republicans. 

During most of the Washington administration, Hamilton’s views 
usually prevailed with the President, especially after 1793 when 
Jefferson left the government. In 1795 family and financial needs 
forced Hamilton to resign from the Treasury Department and resume 
his law practice in New York City. Except for a stint as inspector- 
general of the army (1798-1800) during the undeclared war with 
France, he never again held public office. 

While gaining stature in the law, Hamilton continued to exert a 
powerful impact on New York and national politics. Always an 
opponent of fellow-Federalist John Adams, he sought to prevent his 
election to the presidency in 1796. When that failed, he continued 
to use his influence secretly within Adams’ cabinet. The bitterness 
between the two men became public knowledge in 1800 when 
Hamilton denounced Adams in a letter that was published through 
the efforts of the Democratic-Republicans. 

In 1802 Hamilton and his family moved into The Grange, a country 
home he had built in a rural part of Manhattan not far north 
of New York City. But the expenses involved and investments in 
northern land speculations seriously strained his finances. 

Meanwhile, when Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in presidential 
electoral votes in 1800, Hamilton threw valuable support to Jefferson. 
In 1804, when Burr sought the governorship of New York, Hamilton 
again managed to defeat him. That same year, Burr, taking offense at 
remarks he believed to have originated with Hamilton, challenged 
him to a duel, which took place at present Weehawken, N.J., on July 
11. Mortally wounded, Hamilton died the next day. He was in his 
late forties at death. He was buried in Trinity Churchyard in New 
York City. 


1 5 6 



B 


OGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


W illiam C. Houston 

New Jersey (No Portrait Available) 

William Houston was bom about 1746 to Margaret and 
Archibald Houston. He attended the College of New Jersey (later 
Princeton) and graduated in 1768 and became master of the college 
grammar school and then its tutor. In 1771 he was appointed 
professor of mathematics and natural philosophy. 

From 1775 to 1776 Houston was deputy secretary of the Continen¬ 
tal Congress. He also saw active military service in 1776 and 1777 
when, as captain of the foot militia of Somerset County, he engaged 
in action around Princeton. During the Revolution, Houston also 
served in the New Jersey Assembly (1777) and the New Jersey 
Council of Safety (1778). In 1779 he was once again elected to the 
Continental Congress, where he worked mainly in the areas of supply 
and finance. In addition to serving in Congress, Houston remained 
active in the affairs of the College of New Jersey and also found time 
to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1781 and won the 
appointment of clerk of the New Jersey Supreme Court in the same 
year. Houston resigned from the college in 1783 and concentrated 
on his Trenton law practice. He represented New Jersey in Congress 
once again in 1784 and 1785. 

Houston represented New Jersey at both the Annapolis and 
Philadelphia conventions. Though illness forced him to leave after 1 
week, he did serve on a committee to consider the distribution of 
seats in the lower house. Houston did not sign the Constitution, but 
he signed the report to the New Jersey legislature. 

On August 12, 1788, William Houston succumbed to tuberculosis 
and died in Frankford, Pa., leaving his wife Jane, two daughters, and 
two sons. His body was laid to rest in the Second Presbyterian 
Churchyard in Philadelphia. 


1 5 7 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


illiam Houstoun 

Georgia 

William Houstoun was 
the son of Sir Patrick Houstoun, 
a member of the council under 
the royal government of Georgia. 

He was born in 1755 in Savan¬ 
nah, Ga. Houstoun received a 
liberal education, which included 
legal training at Inner Temple in 
London. The War for Indepen¬ 
dence cut short his training, and 
Houstoun returned home to 
Georgia. For many years mem¬ 
bers of Houstoun’s family had 
been high officials in the colony. 

With the onset of war, many 
remained loyal to the crown, but 
William, a zealous advocate of 
colonists’ rights, was among the 
first to counsel resistance to 
British aggression. 

Houstoun represented Georgia in the Continental Congress from 
1783 through 1786. He was chosen as one of Georgia’s agents to 
settle a boundary dispute with South Carolina in 1785 and was one 
of the original trustees of the University of Georgia at Athens. 

When the Constitutional Convention convened in 1787, Houstoun 
presented his credentials as one of Georgia’s delegates. He stayed for 
only a short time, from June 1 until about July 23, but he was present 
during the debate on the representation question. Houstoun split 
Georgia’s vote on equal representation in the Senate, voting “nay” 
against Abraham Baldwin’s “aye.” 

Houstoun died in Savannah on March 17, 1813, and is interred in 
St. Paul’s Chapel, New York City. 




1 5 8 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


J ared Ingersoll 

Pennsylvania 

The son of Jared Ingersoll, 

Sr., a British colonial official and 
later prominent Loyalist, Ingersoll 
was bom at New Haven, Conn., 
in 1749. He received an excellent 
education and graduated from 
Yale in 1766. He then oversaw 
the financial affairs of his father, 
who had relocated from New 
Haven to Philadelphia. Later, the 
youth joined him, took up the 
study of law, and won admittance 
to the Pennsylvania bar. 

In the midst of the Revolution¬ 
ary fervor, which neither father 
nor son shared, in 1773, on the 
advice of the elder Ingersoll, 

Jared, Jr., sailed to London and 
studied law at the Middle Temple. 

Completing his work in 1776, he 
made a 2-year tour of the Continent, during which time for some 
reason he shed his Loyalist sympathies. 

Returning to Philadelphia and entering the legal profession, Inger¬ 
soll attended to the clients of one of the city’s leading lawyers and 
a family friend, Joseph Reed, who was then occupied with the affairs 
of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. In 1781 Ingersoll 
married Elizabeth Pettit (Petit). The year before, he had entered 
politics by winning election to the Continental Congress (1780-81). 

Although Ingersoll missed no sessions at the Constitutional Con¬ 
vention, had long favored revision of the Articles of Confederation, 
and as a lawyer was used to debate, he seldom spoke during the 
proceedings. 

Subsequently, Ingersoll held a variety of public positions: member 
of the Philadelphia common council (1789); attorney general of 
Pennsylvania (1790-99 and 1811-17); Philadelphia city solicitor 
(1798-1801); U.S. District Attorney for Pennsylvania (1800-01); and 
presiding judge of the Philadelphia District Cout (1821-22). Mean¬ 
time, in 1812, he had been the Federalist vice-presidential candidate, 
but failed to win election. 

While pursuing his public activities, Ingersoll attained distinction 
in his legal practice. For many years, he handled the affairs of Stephen 



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Girard, one of the nation’s leading businessmen. In 1791 Ingersoll 
began to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and took part in 
some memorable cases. Although in both Chisholm v. Georgia (1792) 
and Hylton v. United States (1796) he represented the losing side, 
his arguments helped to clarify difficult constitutional issues. He also 
represented fellow-signer William Blount, a senator, when he was 
threatened with impeachment in the late 1790s. 

Ingersoll’s long career ended in 1822, when he died less than a 
week after his 73d birthday. Survived by three children, he was buried 
in the cemetery of Philadelphia’s First Presbyterian Church. 


D aniel of 

St. Thomas Jenifer 

Maryland 

Of Swedish and English descent, 

Jenifer was born in 1723 at Coates 
Retirement (now Ellerslie) estate, 
near Port Tobacco in Charles 
County, Md. Little is known about 
his childhood or education, but 
as an adult he came into posses¬ 
sion of a large estate near Annap¬ 
olis, called Stepney, where he 
lived most of his life. He never 
married. The web of his far-reach¬ 
ing friendships included such il¬ 
lustrious personages as George 
Washington. 

As a young man, Jenifer served 
as agent and receiver-general for 
the last two proprietors of 
Maryland. He also filled the post 
of justice of the peace in Charles 
County and later for the western circuit of Maryland. In 1760 he sat on 
a boundary commission that settled disputes between Pennsylvania 
and Delaware. Six years later, he became a member of the provincial 
court and from 1773 to 1776 sat on the Maryland royal governor’s 
council. 

Despite his association with conservative proprietary politics, Jenifer 
supported the Revolutionary movement, albeit at first reluctantly. He 
served as president of the Maryland council of safety (1773-77), then 
as president of the first state senate (1777-80). He sat in the Con- 

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tinental Congress (1778-82) and held the position of state revenue 
and financial manager (1782-85). 

A conservative nationalist, Jenifer favored a strong and permanent 
union of the states and a Congress with taxation power. In 1785 he 
represented Maryland at the Mount Vernon Conference. Although he 
was one of 29 delegates who attended nearly every session of the 
Constitutional Convention, he did not speak often but backed 
Madison and the nationalist element. 

Jenifer lived only 3 more years and never again held public office. 
He died at the age of 66 or 67 at Annapolis in 1790. The exact 
location of his grave, apparently at Ellerslie estate, is unknown. 


W illiam Samuel 
Johnson 

Connecticut 

The son of Samuel Johnson, the 
first president of King’s College 
(later Columbia College and Uni¬ 
versity), William was bom at Strat¬ 
ford, Conn., in 1727. His father, 
who was a well-known Anglican 
clergyman-philosopher, prepared 
him for college and he graduated 
from Yale in 1744. About 3 years 
later, he won a master of arts 
degree from the same institution 
and an honorary master’s from 
Harvard. 

Resisting his father’s wish that 
he become a minister, Johnson 
embraced law instead—largely by 
educating himself and without 
benefit of formal training. After 
admittance to the bar, he launched 
a practice in Stratford, representing clients from nearby New York 
State as well as Connecticut, and before long he established business 
connections with various mercantile houses in New York City. In 
1749, adding to his already substantial wealth, he married Anne 
Beach, daughter of a local businessman. The couple was to have five 
daughters and six sons, but many of them died at an early age. 

Johnson did not shirk the civic responsibilities of one of his station. 
In the 1750s he began his public career as a Connecticut militia 

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officer. In 1761 and 1765 he served in the lower house of the colonial 
assembly. In 1766 and 1771 he was elected to the upper house. 

At the time of the Revolution, conflicting loyalties disturbed 
Johnson. Although he attended the Stamp Act Congress (1765), 
moderately opposed the Townshend Duties of 1767, and believed 
that most British policy was unwise, he retained strong transatlantic 
ties and found it difficult to choose sides. Many of his friends resided 
in Britain; in 1765 and 1766 Oxford University conferred honorary 
master’s and doctor’s degrees upon him; he had a strong association 
with the Anglican Church; he acted as Connecticut’s agent in Britain 
during the years 1767-71; and he was friendly with men such as Jared 
Ingersoll, Sr., who were affiliated with the British administration. 

Johnson finally decided to work for peace between Britain and the 
colonies and to oppose the extremist Whig faction. On this basis, he 
refused to participate in the First Continental Congress, to which he 
was elected in 1774, following service as a judge of the Connecticut 
colonial supreme court (1772-74). When hostilities broke out, he 
confined his activities to peacemaking efforts. In April 1775 Connect¬ 
icut sent him and another emissary to speak to British Gen. Thomas 
Gage about ending the bloodshed. But the time was not ripe for 
negotiations and they failed. As radical patriot elements gained the 
ascendancy in Connecticut, Johnson fell out of favor with the govern¬ 
ment and no longer was called on to serve it. Although he was 
arrested in 1779 on charges of communicating with the enemy, he 
cleared himself and was released. 

Once the passions of war had ebbed, Johnson resumed his political 
career. In the Continental Congress (1785-87), he was one of the 
most influential and popular delegates. Playing a major role in the 
Constitutional Convention, he missed no sessions after arriving on 
June 2; espoused the Connecticut Compromise; and chaired the 
committee of style, which shaped the final document. He also worked 
for ratification in Connecticut. 

Johnson took part in the new government, in the U.S. Senate where 
he contributed to passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789. In 1791, the 
year after the government moved from New York to Philadelphia, he 
resigned mainly because he preferred to devote all his energies to 
the presidency of Columbia College (1787-1800), in New York City. 
During these years, he established the school on a firm basis and 
recruited a fine faculty. 

Johnson retired from the college in 1800, a few years after his wife 
died, and the same year wed Mary Brewster Beach, a relative of his 
first bride. They resided at his birthplace, Stratford. He died there in 
1819 at the age of 92 and was buried at Old Episcopal Cemetery. 

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ufus King 

Massachusetts 
King was bom at Scar- 
boro (Scarborough), Mass. 

(present Maine), in 1755. He was 
the eldest son of a prosperous 
farmer-merchant. At age 12, after 
receiving an elementary educa¬ 
tion at local schools, he matricu¬ 
lated at Dummer Academy in 
South Byfield, Mass., and in 1777 
graduated from Harvard. He 
served briefly as a general’s aide 
during the War for Independence. 

Choosing a legal career, he read 
for the law at Newburyport, Mass., 
and entered practice there in 
1780. 

King’s knowledge, bearing, and oratorical gifts soon launched him 
on a political career. From 1783 to 1785 he was a member of the 
Massachusetts legislature, after which that body sent him to the 
Continental Congress (1784-86). There, he gained a reputation 
as a brilliant speaker and an early opponent of slavery. Toward the 
end of his tour, in 1786, he married Mary Alsop, daughter of a rich 
New York City merchant. He performed his final duties for Mas¬ 
sachusetts by representing her at the Constitutional Convention and 
by serving in the commonwealth ratifying convention. 

At age 32, King was not only one of the most youthful of the 
delegates at Philadelphia, but was also one of the most important. 
He numbered among the most capable orators. Furthermore, he 
attended every session. Although he came to the convention uncon¬ 
vinced that major changes should be made in the Articles of Con¬ 
federation, during the debates his views underwent a startling 
transformation. With Madison, he became a leading figure in the 
nationalist caucus. He served with distinction on the committee on 
postponed matters and the committee of style. He also took notes 
on the proceedings, which have been valuable to historians. 

About 1788 King abandoned his law practice, moved from the Bay 
State to Gotham, and entered the New York political forum. He was 
elected to the legislature (1789-90), and in the former year was 
picked as one of the state’s first U.S. senators. As political divisions 
grew in the new government, King’s sympathies came to be ardently 
Federalist. In Congress, he supported Hamilton’s fiscal program and 




1 6 3 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


stood among the leading proponents of the unpopular Jay’s Treaty 
(1794). 

Meantime, in 1791, King had become one of the directors of the 
First Bank of the United States. Reelected to the U.S. Senate in 1795, 
he served only a year before he was appointed as Minister to Great 
Britain (1796-1803). 

King’s years in this post were difficult ones in Anglo-American 
relations. The wars of the French Revolution trapped U.S. commerce 
between the French and the British. The latter in particular violated 
American rights on the high seas, especially by the impressment of 
sailors. Although King was unable to bring about a change in this 
policy, he smoothed relations between the two nations. 

In 1803 King sailed back to the United States and to a career in 
politics. In 1804 and 1808 fellow-signer Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 
and he were the Federalist candidates for President and Vice Presi¬ 
dent, respectively, but were decisively defeated. Otherwise, King 
largely contented himself with agricultural pursuits at King Manor, a 
Long Island estate he had purchased in 1805. During the War of 1812, 
he was again elected to the U.S. Senate (1813-25) and ranked as a 
leading critic of the war. Only after the British attacked Washington 
in 1814 did he come to believe that the United States was fighting a 
defensive action and to lend his support to the war effort. 

In 1816 the Federalists chose King as their candidate for the 
presidency, but James Monroe handily beat him. Still in the Senate, 
that same year King led the opposition to the establishment of the 
Second Bank of the United States. Four years later, believing that the 
issue of slavery could not be compromised but must be settled once 
and for all by the immediate establishment of a system of compen¬ 
sated emancipation and colonization, he denounced the Missouri 
Compromise. 

In 1823, suffering from ill health, King retired from the Senate. 
President John Quincy Adams, however, persuaded him to accept 
another assignment as Minister to Great Britain. He arrived in England 
that same year, but soon fell ill and was forced to return home the 
following year. Within a year, at the age of 72, in 1827, he died. 
Surviving him were several offspring, some of whom also gained 
distinction. He was laid to rest near King Manor in the cemetery of 
Grace Episcopal Church, Jamaica, Long Island, N.Y. 


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J ohn Langdon 

New Hampshire 
Langdon was born in 1741 at 
or near Portsmouth, N.H. His 
father, whose family had emigrated 
to America before 1660, was a 
prosperous farmer who sired a 
large family. The youth’s educa¬ 
tion was intermittent. He attended 
a local grammar school, worked 
as an apprentice clerk, and spent 
some time at sea. Eventually he 
went into the mercantile busi¬ 
ness for himself and prospered. 

Langdon, a vigorous supporter 
of the Revolution, sat on the New 
Hampshire committee of cor¬ 
respondence and a nonimporta¬ 
tion committee. He also attended 
various patriot assemblies. In 1774 he participated in the seizure 
and confiscation of British munitions from the Portsmouth fort. 

The next year, Langdon served as speaker of the New Hampshire 
assembly and also sat in the Continental Congress (1775-76). During 
the latter year, he accepted a colonelcy in the militia of his state and 
became its agent for British prizes on behalf of the Continental 
Congress, a post he held throughout the war. In addition, he built 
privateers for operations against the British—a lucrative occupation. 

Langdon also actively took part in the land war. In 1777 he 
organized and paid for Gen. John Stark’s expedition from New 
Hampshire against British Gen. John Burgoyne and was present in 
command of a militia unit at Saratoga, N.Y., when the latter surren¬ 
dered. Langdon later led a detachment of troops during the Rhode 
Island campaign, but found his major outlet in politics. He was 
speaker of the New Hampshire legislature from 1777 to 1781. In 1777, 
meantime, he had married Elizabeth Sherburne, who was to give birth 
to one daughter. 

In 1783 Langdon was elected to the Continental Congress; the next 
year, to the state senate; and the following year, as president, or chief 
executive, of New Hampshire. In 1784 he built a home at Portsmouth. 
In 1786-87 he was back again as speaker of the legislature and during 
the latter year for the third time in the Continental Congress. 

Langdon was forced to pay his own expenses and those of Nicholas 
Gilman to the Constitutional Convention because New Hampshire 



1 6 5 




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was unable or unwilling to pay them. The pair did not arrive at 
Philadelphia until late July, by which time much business had already 
been consummated. Thereafter, Langdon made a significant mark. He 
spoke more than 20 times during the debates and was a member of 
the committee that struck a compromise on the issue of slavery. For 
the most part, his sympathies lay on the side of strengthening the 
national government. In 1788, once again as state president 
(1788-89), he took part in the ratifying convention. 

From 1789 to 1801 Langdon sat in the U.S. Senate, including service 
as the first President pro tem for several sessions. During these years, 
his political affiliations changed. As a supporter of a strong central 
government, he had been a member of the Federalist Party, but by 
the time of Jay’s Treaty (1794) he was opposing its policies. By 1801 
he was firmly backing the Democratic-Republicans. 

That year, Langdon declined Jefferson’s offer of the secretaryship 
of the navy. Between then and 1812, he kept active in New 
Hampshire politics. He sat again in the legislature (1801-5), twice 
holding the position of speaker. After several unsuccessful attempts, 
in 1805 he was elected as governor and continued in that post until 
1811 except for a year’s hiatus in 1809. Meanwhile, in 1805, 
Dartmouth College had awarded him an honorary doctor of laws 
degree. 

In 1812 Langdon refused the Democratic-Republican vice-presiden¬ 
tial nomination on the grounds of age and health. He enjoyed 
retirement for another 7 years before he died at the age of 78. His 
grave is at Old North Cemetery in Portsmouth. 


J ohn Lansing, Jr. 

New York (No Portrait Available) 

On January 30, 1754, John Lansing was born in Albany, N.Y., to 
Gerrit Jacob andjannetje Lansing. At age 21 Lansing had completed his 
study of the law and was admitted to practice. In 1781 he married 
Cornelia Ray. They had 10 children, 5 of whom died in infancy. Lansing 
was quite wealthy; he owned a large estate at Lansingburg and had a 
lucrative law practice. 

From 1776 to 1777 Lansing acted as military secretary to Gen. Philip 
Schuyler. From the military world Lansing turned to the political and 
served six terms in the New York Assembly—1780-84,1786, and 1788. 
During the last two terms he was speaker of the assembly. In the 2-year 
gap between his first four terms in the assembly and the fifth, Lansing sat 
in the Confederation Congress. He rounded out his public service by 
serving as Albany’s mayor between 1786 and 1790. 

1 6 6 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


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Lansing went to Philadelphia as part of the New York delegation 
to the Constitutional Convention. As the convention progressed, 
Lansing became disillusioned because he believed it was exceeding 
its instructions. Lansing believed the delegates had gathered together 
simply to amend the Articles of Confederation and was dismayed at 
the movement to write an entirely new constitution. After 6 weeks, 
John Lansing and fellow New York delegate Robert Yates left the 
convention and explained their departure in a joint letter to New 
York Governor George Clinton. They stated that they opposed any 
system that would consolidate the United States into one government, 
and they had understood that the convention would not consider any 
such consolidation. Furthermore, warned Lansing and Yates, the kind 
of government recommended by the convention could not “afford 
that security to equal and permanent liberty which we wished to 
make an invariable object of our pursuit.” In 1788, as a member of 
the New York ratifying convention, Lansing again vigorously opposed 
the Constitution. 

Under the new federal government Lansing pursued a long judicial 
career. In 1790 he began an 11-year term on the supreme court of 
New York; from 1798 until 1801 he served as its chief justice. 
Between 1801 and 1814 Lansing was chancellor of the state. Retire¬ 
ment from that post did not slow him down; in 1817 he accepted 
an appointment as a regent of the University of the State of New York. 

Lansing’s death was the most mysterious of all the delegates to the 
Constitutional Convention. While on a visit to New York City in 1829, 
he left his hotel to post some letters. No trace of him was ever found, 
and it was supposed that he had been murdered. 


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W illiam Livingston 

New Jersey 

Livingston was born in 
1723 at Albany, N.Y. His maternal 
grandmother reared him until he 
was 14, and he then spent a year 
with a missionary among the 
Mohawk Indians. He attended 
Yale and graduated in 1741. 

Rejecting his family’s hope that 
he would enter the fur trade at 
Albany or mercantile pursuits in 
New York City, young Livingston 
chose to pursue a career in law 
at the latter place. Before he 
completed his legal studies, in 
1743 he married Susanna French, 
daughter of a well-to-do New Jer¬ 
sey landowner. She was to bear 
13 children. 

Three years later, Livingston 
was admitted to the bar and 
quickly gained a reputation as the supporter of popular causes against 
the more conservative factions in the city. Associated with the Cal¬ 
vinists in religion, he opposed the dominant Anglican leaders in the 
colony and wielded a sharply satirical pen in verses and broadsides. 
Attacking the Anglican attempt to charter and control King’s College 
(later Columbia College and University) and the dominant De Lancey 
party for its Anglican sympathies, by 1758 Livingston had risen to the 
leadership of his faction. For a decade, it controlled the colonial 
assembly and fought against parliamentary interference in the 
colony’s affairs. During this time, 1759-61, Livingston sat in the 
assembly. 

In 1769 Livingston’s supporters, split by the growing debate as to 
how to respond to British taxation of the colonies, lost control of the 
assembly. Not long thereafter, Livingston, who had also grown tired 
of legal practice, moved to the Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), 
N.J., area, where he had purchased land in 1760. There, in 1772-73, 
he built the estate, Liberty Hall, continued to write verse, and planned 
to live the life of a gentleman farmer. 

The Revolutionary upsurge, however, brought Livingston out of 
retirement. He soon became a member of the Essex County, N.J., 
committee of correspondence; in 1774 a representative in the First 

1 6 8 





B IOGRAPHICAL 


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Continental Congress; and in 1775-76 a delegate to the Second 
Continental Congress. In June 1776 he left Congress to command the 
New Jersey militia as a brigadier general and held this post until he 
was elected later in the year as the first governor of the state. 

Livingston held the position throughout and beyond the war—in 
fact, for 14 consecutive years until his death in 1790. During his 
administration, the government was organized, the war won, and New 
Jersey launched on her path as a sovereign state. Although the 
pressure of affairs often prevented it, he enjoyed his estate whenever 
possible, conducted agricultural experiments, and became a member 
of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture. He was also 
active in the antislavery movement. 

In 1787 Livingston was selected as a delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention, though his gubernatorial duties prevented him from 
attending every session. He did not arrive until June 5 and missed 
several weeks in July, but he performed vital committee work, 
particularly as chairman of the one that reached a compromise on 
the issue of slavery. He also supported the New Jersey Plan. In 
addition, he spurred New Jersey’s rapid ratification of the Constitution 
(1787). The next year, Yale awarded him an honorary doctor of laws 
degree. 

Livingston died at Liberty Hall in his 67th year in 1790. He was 
originally buried at the local Presbyterian Churchyard, but a year later 
his remains were moved to a vault his son owned at Trinity Church¬ 
yard in Manhattan and in 1844 were again relocated, to Brooklyn’s 
Greenwood Cemetery. 


1 6 9 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


J ames McClurg 

Virginia 

James McClurg was born 
near Hampton, Va., in 1746. He 
attended the College of William 
and Mary and graduated in 1762. 

McClurg then studied medicine 
at the University of Edinburgh 
and received his degree in 1770. 

He pursued postgraduate medi¬ 
cal studies in Paris and London 
and published Experiments upon 
the Human Bile and Reflections 
on the Biliary Secretions (1772) 
in London. His work and writings 
were well-received and respected 
by the medical community, and 
his article was translated into 
several languages. In 1773 
McClurg returned to Virginia and 
served as a surgeon in the state 
militia during the Revolution. 

Before the end of the war the College of William and Mary 
appointed McClurg its professor of anatomy and medicine. The same 
year, 1779, he married Elizabeth Seldon. James McClurg’s reputation 
continued to grow, and he was regarded as one of the most eminent 
physicians in Virginia. In 1820 and 1821 he was president of the state 
medical society. 

In addition to his medical practice, McClurg pursued politics. In 
1782 James Madison advocated McClurg’s appointment as secretary 
of foreign affairs for the United States but was unsuccessful. When 
Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry declined to serve as represen¬ 
tatives to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, McClurg was asked 
to join Virginia’s delegation. In Philadelphia McClurg advocated a life 
tenure for the President and argued for the ability of the federal 
government to override state laws. Even as some at the convention 
expressed apprehension of the powers allotted to the presidency, 
McClurg championed greater independence of the executive from the 
legislative branch. He left the convention in early August, however, 
and did not sign the Constitution. 

James McClurg’s political service did not end with the convention. 
During George Washington’s administration McClurg served on Vir¬ 
ginia’s executive council. He died in Richmond, Va., on July 9, 1823. 



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TT ames McHenry 

H Maryland 

J McHenry was bom at Bal¬ 
lymena, County Antrim, Ireland, 
in 1753- He enjoyed a classical 
education at Dublin and in 1771 
emigrated to Philadelphia. The 
following year, the rest of his 
family came to the colonies, and 
his brother and father established 
an import business at Baltimore. 

During that year, James continued 
schooling at Newark Academy in 
Delaware and then studied 
medicine for 2 years under the 
well-known Dr. Benjamin Rush 
in Philadelphia. 

During the War for Indepen¬ 
dence, McHenry served as a 
military surgeon. Late in 1776, 
while he was on the staff of the 
5th Pennsylvania Battalion, the 
British captured him at Fort Washington, N.Y. He was paroled early 
the next year and exchanged in March 1778. Returning immediately 
to duty, he was assigned to Valley Forge, Pa., and in May became 
secretary to George Washington. About this time, McHenry apparently 
quit the practice of medicine to devote himself to politics and 
administration; he apparently never needed to return to it after the 
war because of his excellent financial circumstances. 

McHenry stayed on Washington’s staff until 1780, when he joined 
that of the Marquis de Lafayette, and he remained in that assignment 
until he entered the Maryland senate (1781-86). During part of this 
period, he served concurrently in the Continental Congress (1783-86). 
In 1784 he married Margaret Allison Caldwell. 

McHenry missed many of the proceedings at the Philadelphia 
convention, in part because of the illness of his brother, and played 
an insubstantial part in the debates when he was present. He did, 
however, maintain a private journal that has been useful to posterity. 
He campaigned strenuously for the Constitution in Maryland and 
attended the state ratifying convention. 

From 1789 to 1791, McHenry sat in the state assembly and in the 
years 1791-96 again in the senate. A staunch Federalist, he then 
accepted Washington’s offer of the post of Secretary of War and held 



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B IOGRAPHICAL 


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it into the administration of John Adams. McHenry looked to Hamil¬ 
ton rather than to Adams for leadership. As time passed, the latter 
became increasingly dissatisfied with McHenry’s performance and 
distrustful of his political motives and in 1800 forced him to resign. 
Subsequently, the Democratic-Republicans accused him of malad¬ 
ministration, but a congressional committee vindicated him. 

McHenry returned to his estate near Baltimore and to semiretire¬ 
ment. He remained a loyal Federalist and opposed the War of 1812. 
He also held the office of president of a Bible society. He died in 
1816 at the age of 62, survived by two of his three children. His grave 
is in Baltimore’s Westminster Presbyterian Cemetery. 

J ames Madison 

Virginia 

The oldest of 10 children 
and a scion of the planter aris¬ 
tocracy, Madison was born in 
1751 at Port Conway, King George 
County, Va., while his mother 
was visiting her parents. With her 
newborn son, in a few weeks she 
journeyed back to Montpelier es¬ 
tate, in Orange County, which 
became his lifelong home. He 
received his early education from 
his mother, from tutors, and at a 
private school. An excellent 
scholar though frail and sickly in 
his youth, in 1771 he graduated from the College of New Jersey 
(later Princeton), where he demonstrated special interest in govern¬ 
ment and the law. But, considering the ministry for a career, he 
stayed on for a year of postgraduate study in theology. 

Back at Montpelier, still undecided on a profession, Madison soon 
embraced the patriot cause, and state and local politics absorbed 
much of his time. In 1775 he served on the Orange County com¬ 
mittee of safety; the next year at the Virginia convention, which, 
besides advocating various Revolutionary steps, framed the Virginia 
constitution; in 1776-77 in the House of Delegates; and in 1778-80 
in the Council of State. His ill health precluded any military service. 

In 1780 Madison was chosen to represent Virginia in the Continen¬ 
tal Congress (1780-83 and 1786-88). Although originally the young¬ 
est delegate, he played a major role in the deliberations of that body. 

1 7 2 




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Meantime, in the years 1784-86, he had again sat in the Virginia 
House of Delegates. He was a guiding force behind the Mount 
Vernon Conference (1785), attended the Annapolis Convention 
(1786), and was otherwise highly instrumental in the convening of 
the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He had also written exten¬ 
sively about deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation. 

Madison was clearly the preeminent figure at the convention. Some 
of the delegates favored an authoritarian central Government; others, 
retention of state sovereignty; and most occupied positions in the 
middle of the two extremes. Madison, who was rarely absent and 
whose Virginia Plan was in large part the basis of the Constitution, 
tirelessly advocated a strong government, though many of his 
proposals were rejected. Despite his lack of special capability as a 
speaker, he took the floor more than 150 times, third only after 
Gouverneur Morris and James Wilson. Madison was also a member 
of numerous committees, the most important of which were those 
on postponed matters and style. His journal of the convention is the 
best single record of the event. He also played a key part in guiding 
the Constitution through the Continental Congress. 

Playing a lead in the ratification process in Virginia, too, Madison 
defended the document against such powerful opponents as Patrick 
Henry, George Mason, and Richard Henry Lee. In New York, where 
Madison was serving in the Continental Congress, he collaborated 
with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in a series of essays that in 
1787-88 appeared in the newspapers and were soon published in 
book form as The Federalist (1788). This set of essays is a classic of 
political theory and a lucid exposition of the republican principles 
that dominated the framing of the Constitution. 

In the U.S. House of Representatives (1789-97), Madison helped 
frame and ensure passage of the Bill of Rights. He also assisted in 
organizing the executive department and creating a system of federal 
taxation. As leaders of the opposition to Hamilton’s policies, he and 
Jefferson founded the Democratic-Republican Party. 

In 1794 Madison married a vivacious widow who was 16 years his 
junior, Dolley Payne Todd, who had a son; they were to raise no 
children of their own. Madison spent the period 1797-1801 in semi- 
retirement, but in 1798 he wrote the Virginia Resolutions, which 
attacked the Alien and Sedition Acts. While he served as Secretary of 
State (1801-9), his wife often served as President Jefferson’s hostess. 

In 1809 Madison succeeded Jefferson. Like the first three Presi¬ 
dents, Madison was enmeshed in the ramifications of European wars. 
Diplomacy had failed to prevent the seizure of U.S. ships, goods, and 
men on the high seas, and a depression wracked the country. Madison 


1 7 3 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


continued to apply diplomatic techniques and economic sanctions, 
eventually effective to some degree against France. But continued 
British interference with shipping, as well as other grievances, led to 
the War of 1812. 

The war, for which the young nation was ill prepared, ended in 
stalemate in December 1814 when the inconclusive Treaty of Ghent, 
which nearly restored prewar conditions, was signed. But, thanks 
mainly to Andrew Jackson’s spectacular victory at the Battle of New 
Orleans (Chalmette) in January 1815, most Americans believed they 
had won. Twice tested, independence had survived, and an ebullient 
nationalism marked Madison’s last years in office, during which 
period the Democratic-Republicans held virtually uncontested sway. 

In retirement after his second term, Madison managed Montpelier 
but continued to be active in public affairs. He devoted long hours to 
editing his journal of the Constitutional Convention, which the govern¬ 
ment was to publish 4 years after his death. He served as cochairman 
of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829-30 and as rector of 
the University of Virginia during the period 1826-36. Writing news¬ 
paper articles defending the administration of Monroe, he also acted 
as his foreign policy adviser. 

Madison spoke out, too, against the emerging sectional controversy 
that threatened the existence of the Union. Although a slaveholder all 
his life, he was active during his later years in the American Coloniza¬ 
tion Society, whose mission was the resettlement of slaves in Africa. 

Madison died at the age of 85 in 1836, survived by his wife and 
stepson. 


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A lexander Martin 

North Carolina 
Though he represented 
North Carolina at the Constitu¬ 
tional Convention, Alexander Mar¬ 
tin was born in Hunterdon 
County, N.J., in 1740. His parents, 

Hugh and Jane Martin, moved 
first to Virginia, then to Guilford 
County, N.C., when Alexander 
was very young. Martin attended 
the College of New Jersey (later 
Princeton), received his degree 
in 1756, and moved to Salisbury. 

There he started his career as a 
merchant but turned to public 
service as he became justice of 
the peace, deputy king’s attorney, 
and, in 1774 and 1775, judge of 
Salisbury district. 

At the September 1770 session 
of the superior court at Hillsboro, 

150 Regulators armed with sticks, switches, and cudgels crowded into 
the courtroom. They had come to present a petition to the judge 
demanding unprejudiced juries and a public accounting of taxes by 
sheriffs. Violence erupted, and several, including Alexander Martin, 
were beaten. In 1771 Martin signed an agreement with the Regulators 
to refund all fees taken illegally and to arbitrate all differences. 

From 1773 to 1774 Martin served in the North Carolina House of 
Commons and in the second and third provincial congresses in 1775. 
In September 1775 he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel in the 2d 
North Carolina Continental Regiment. Martin saw military action in 
South Carolina and won promotion to a colonelcy. He joined 
Washington’s army in 1777, but after the Battle of Germantown he 
was arrested for cowardice. A court-martial tried and acquitted Martin, 
but he resigned his commission on November 22, 1777. 

Martin’s misfortune in the army did not impede his political career. 
The year after his court-martial he entered the North Carolina Senate, 
where he served for 8 years (1778-82, 1785, and 1787-88). For every 
session except those of 1778-79, Martin served as speaker. From 1780 
to 1781 he also sat on the Board of War and its successor, the Council 
Extraordinary. In 1781 Martin became acting governor of the state, 
and in 1782 through 1785 he was elected in his own right. 



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After his 1785 term in the North Carolina Senate, Martin represented 
his state in the Continental Congress, but he resigned in 1787. Of 
the five North Carolina delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 
Martin was the least strongly Federalist. He did not take an active part 
in the proceedings, and he left Philadelphia in late August 1787, 
before the Constitution was signed. Martin was considered a good 
politician but not suited to public debate. A colleague, Hugh William¬ 
son, remarked that Martin needed time to recuperate after his great 
exertions as governor “to enable him again to exert his abilities to 
the advantage of the nation.” 

Under the new national government, Martin again served as Gover¬ 
nor of North Carolina, from 1789 until 1792. After 1790 he moved 
away from the Federalists to the Republicans. In 1792 Martin, elected 
by the Republican legislature, entered the U.S. Senate. His vote in 
favor of the Alien and Sedition Acts cost him reelection. Back in North 
Carolina, Martin returned to the state senate in 1804 and 1805 to 
represent Rockingham County. In 1805 he once again served as 
speaker. From 1790 until 1807 he was a trustee of the University of 
North Carolina. Martin never married, and he died on November 2, 
1807 at the age of 67 at his plantation, “Danbury,” in Rockingham 
County and was buried on the estate. 


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L uther Martin 

Maryland 

Like many of the delegates 
to the Constitutional Convention, 

Luther Martin attended the Col¬ 
lege of New Jersey (later Prin¬ 
ceton), from which he graduated 
with honors in 1766. Though 
born in Brunswick, N.J., in 1748, 

Martin moved to Maryland after 
receiving his degree and taught 
there for 3 years. He then began 
to study the law and was admit¬ 
ted to the Virginia bar in 1771. 

Martin was an early advocate 
of American independence from 
Great Britain. In the fall of 1774 
he served on the patriot com¬ 
mittee of Somerset County, and 
in December he attended a con¬ 
vention of the Province of Mary¬ 
land in Annapolis, which had been called to consider the recommenda¬ 
tions of the Continental Congress. Maryland appointed Luther Martin 
its attorney general in early 1778. In this capacity, Martin vigorously 
prosecuted Loyalists, whose numbers were strong in many areas. 
Tensions had even led to insurrection and open warfare in some 
counties. While still attorney general, Martin joined the Baltimore 
Light Dragoons. In July 1781 his unit joined Lafayette’s forces near 
Fredericksburg, Va., but Martin was recalled by the governor to 
prosecute a treason trial. 

Martin married Maria Cresap on Christmas 1783- Of their five 
children, three daughters lived to adulthood. His postwar law practice 
grew to become one of the largest and most successful in the country. 
In 1783 Martin was elected to the Continental Congress, but this 
appointment was purely honorary. His numerous public and private 
duties prevented him from traveling to Philadelphia. 

At the Constitutional Convention Martin opposed the idea of a 
strong central government. When he arrived on June 9, 1787, he 
expressed suspicion of the secrecy rule imposed on the proceedings. 
He consistently sided with the small states and voted against the 
Virginia Plan. On June 27 Martin spoke for more than 3 hours in 
opposition to the Virginia Plan’s proposal for porportionate represen- 


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tation in both houses of the legislature. Martin was appointed to the 
committee formed to seek a compromise on representation, where 
he supported the case for equal numbers of delegates in at least one 
house. Before the convention closed, he and another Maryland 
delegate, John Francis Mercer, walked out. 

In an address to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1787 and in 
numerous newspaper articles, Martin attacked the proposed new form 
of government and continued to fight ratification of the Constitution 
through 1788. He lamented the ascension of the national government 
over the states and condemned what he saw as unequal representa¬ 
tion in Congress. Martin opposed including slaves in determining 
representation and believed that the absence of a jury in the Supreme 
Court gravely endangered freedom. At the convention, Martin com¬ 
plained, the aggrandizement of particular states and individuals often 
had been pursued more avidly than the welfare of the country. The 
assumption of the term “federal” by those who favored a national 
government also irritated Martin. Around 1791, however, Martin 
turned to the Federalist party because of his animosity toward 
Thomas Jefferson. 

The first years of the 1800s saw Martin as defense counsel in two 
controversial national cases. In the first Martin won an acquittal for 
his close friend, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase, in his impeach¬ 
ment trial in 1805. Two years later Martin was one of Aaron Burr’s 
defense lawyers when Burr stood trial for treason in 1807. 

After a record 28 consecutive years as state attorney general, Luther 
Martin resigned in December 1805. In 1813 Martin became chief 
judge of the court of oyer and terminer for the City and County of 
Baltimore. He was re-appointed attorney general of Maryland in 1818, 
and in 1819 he argued Maryland’s position in the landmark Supreme 
Court case McCulloch v. Maryland. The plaintiff, represented by 
Daniel Webster, William Pinckney, and William Wirt, won the decision, 
which determined that states could not tax federal institutions. 

Martin’s fortunes declined dramatically in his last years. Heavy 
drinking, illness, and poverty all took their toll. Paralysis, which had 
struck in 1819, forced him to retire as Maryland’s attorney general in 
1822. In 1826, at the age of 78, Luther Martin died in Aaron Burr’s 
home in New York City and was buried in an unmarked grave in St. 
John’s churchyard. 


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G eorge Mason 

Virginia 

In 1725 George Mason 
was born to George and Ann 
Thomson Mason. Mien the boy 
was 10 years old his father died, 
and young George’s upbringing 
was left in the care of his uncle, 

John Mercer. The future jurist’s 
education was profoundly shaped 
by the contents of his uncle’s 
1500-volume library, one-third of 
which concerned the law. 

Mason established himself as 
an important figure in his com¬ 
munity. As owner of Gunston 
Hall he was one of the richest 
planters in Virginia. In 1750 he 
married Anne Eilbeck, and in 23 
years of marriage they had five 
sons and four daughters. In 1752 
he acquired an interest in the 
Ohio Company, an organization that speculated in western lands. 
When the crown revoked the company’s rights in 1773, Mason, the 
company’s treasurer, wrote his first major state paper, Extracts from 
the Virginia Charters, with Some Remarks upon Them. 

During these years Mason also pursued his political interests. He 
was a justice of the Fairfax County court, and between 1754 and 1779 
Mason was a trustee of the city of Alexandria. In 1759 he was elected 
to the Virginia House of Burgesses. When the Stamp Act of 1765 
aroused outrage in the colonies, George Mason wrote an open letter 
explaining the colonists’ position to a committee of London mer¬ 
chants to enlist their support. 

In 1774 Mason again was in the forefront of political events when 
he assisted in drawing up the Fairfax Resolves, a document that 
outlined the colonists’ constitutional grounds for their objections to 
the Boston Port Act. Virginia’s Declaration of Rights, framed by Mason 
in 1776, was widely copied in other colonies, served as a model for 
Jefferson in the first part of the Declaration of Independence, and 
was the basis for the federal Constitution’s Bill of Rights. 

The years between 1776 and 1780 were filled with great legislative 
activity. The establishment of a government independent of Great 
Britain required the abilities of persons such as George Mason. He 


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supported the disestablishment of the church and was active in the 
organization of military affairs, especially in the West. The influence 
of his early work, Extracts from the Virginia Charters , is seen in the 
1783 peace treaty with Great Britain, which fixed the Anglo-American 
boundary at the Great Lakes instead of the Ohio River. After indepen¬ 
dence, Mason drew up the plan for Virginia’s cession of its western 
lands to the United States. 

By the early 1780s, however, Mason grew disgusted with the 
conduct of public affairs and retired. He married his second wife, 
Sarah Brent, in 1780. In 1785 he attended the Mount Vernon meeting 
that was a prelude to the Annapolis convention of 1786, but, though 
appointed, he did not go to Annapolis. 

At Philadelphia in 1787 Mason was one of the five most frequent 
speakers at the Constitutional Convention. He exerted great influence, 
but during the last 2 weeks of the convention he decided not to sign 
the document. 

Mason’s refusal prompts some surprise, especially since his name 
is so closely linked with constitutionalism. He explained his reasons 
at length, citing the absence of a declaration of rights as his primary 
concern. He then discussed the provisions of the Constitution point 
by point, beginning with the House of Representatives. The House 
he criticized as not truly representative of the nation, the Senate as 
too powerful. He also claimed that the power of the federal judiciary 
would destroy the state judiciaries, render justice unattainable, and 
enable the rich to oppress and ruin the poor. These fears led Mason 
to conclude that the new government was destined to either become 
a monarchy or fall into the hands of a corrupt, oppressive aristocracy. 

Two of Mason’s greatest concerns were incorporated into the 
Constitution. The Bill of Rights answered his primary objection, and 
the 11th amendment addressed his call for strictures on the judiciary. 

Throughout his career Mason was guided by his belief in the rule 
of reason and in the centrality of the natural rights of man. He 
approached problems coolly, rationally, and impersonally. In recog¬ 
nition of his accomplishments and dedication to the principles of the 
Age of Reason, Mason has been called the American manifestation of 
the Enlightenment. Mason died on October 7, 1792, and was buried 
on the grounds of Gunston Hall. 


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J ohn Francis Mercer 

Maryland 

John Francis Mercer, bom on 
May 17, 1759, was the fifth of 
nine children bom to John and 
Ann Mercer of Stafford County, 

Va. He attended the College of 
William and Mary, and in early 
1776 he joined the 3d Virginia 
Regiment. Mercer became Gen. 

Charles Lee’s aide-de-camp in 
1778, but after General Lee’s 
court-martial in October 1779, 

Mercer resigned his commission. 

He spent the next year studying 
law at the College of William and 
Mary and then rejoined the army, 
where he served briefly under 
Lafayette. 

In 1782 Mercer was elected to 
the Virginia House of Delegates. 

That December he became one 
of Virginia’s representatives to the Continental Congress. He later 
returned to the House of Delegates in 1785 and 1786. 

Mercer married Sophia Sprigg in 1785 and soon after moved to 
Anne Arundel County, Md. He attended the Constitutional Convention 
as part of Maryland’s delegation when he was only 28 years old, the 
second youngest delegate in Philadelphia. Mercer was strongly op¬ 
posed to centralization and both spoke and voted against the Con¬ 
stitution. He and fellow Marylander Luther Martin left the proceedings 
before they ended. 

After the convention, Mercer continued in public service. He allied 
himself with the Republicans and served in the Maryland House of 
Delegates in 1778-89, 1791-92, 1800-1801, and 1803-6. Between 
1791 and 1794 he also sat in the U.S. House of Representatives for 
Maryland and was chosen governor of the state for two terms, 1801-3. 
During Thomas Jefferson’s term as President, Mercer broke with the 
Republicans and joined the Federalist camp. 

Illness plagued him during his last years. In 1821 Mercer traveled 
to Philadelphia to seek medical attention, and he died there on 
August 30. His remains lay temporarily in a vault in St. Peter’s Church 
in Philadelphia and were reinterred on his estate, “Cedar Park” in 
Maryland. 



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T homas Mifflin 

Pennsylvania 
A member of the fourth 
generation of a Pennsylvania 
Quaker family who had emigrated 
from England, Mifflin was born at 
Philadelphia in 1744, the son of 
a rich merchant and local 
politician. He studied at a Quaker 
school and then at the College of 
Philadelphia (later part of the Uni¬ 
versity of Pennsylvania), from 
which he won a diploma at the 
age of 16 and whose interests he 
advanced for the rest of his life. 

Mifflin then worked for 4 years 
in a Philadelphia counting-house. 

In 1764 he visited Europe, and 
the next year entered the mercantile business in Philadelphia with 
his brother. In 1767 he wed Sarah Morris. Although he prospered in 
business, politics enticed him. 

In the Pennsylvania legislature (1772-76), Mifflin championed the 
colonial position against the crown. In 1774 he attended the Con¬ 
tinental Congress (1774-76). Meanwhile, he had helped to raise 
troops and in May 1775 won appointment as a major in the Con¬ 
tinental Army, which caused him to be expelled from his Quaker 
faith. In the summer of 1775 he first became an aide-de-camp to 
Washington and then Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. 
Late in 1775 he became a colonel and in May 1776 a brigadier 
general. Preferring action to administration, after a time he began to 
perform his quartermaster duties perfunctorily. Nevertheless, he par¬ 
ticipated directly in the war effort. He took part in the Battles of Long 
Island, N.Y., Trenton, N.J., and Princeton, N.J. Furthermore, through 
his persuasive oratory, he apparently convinced many men not to 
leave the military service. 

In 1777 Mifflin attained the rank of major general but, restive at 
criticism of his quartermaster activities, he resigned. About the same 
time, though he later became a friend of Washington, he became 
involved in the cabal that advanced Gen. Horatio Gates to replace 
him in command of the Continental Army. In 1777-78 Mifflin sat on 
the Congressional Board of War. In the latter year, he briefly reen¬ 
tered the military, but continuing attacks on his earlier conduct of 
the quartermastership soon led him to resign once more. 


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Mifflin returned immediately to politics. He sat in the state as¬ 
sembly (1778-79) and again in the Continental Congress (1782-84), 
from December 1783 to the following June as its president. In 1787 
he was chosen to take part in the Constitutional Convention. He 
attended regularly, but made no speeches and did not play a sub¬ 
stantial role. 

Mifflin continued in the legislature (1785-88 and 1799-1800); 
succeeded Franklin as president of the Supreme Executive Council 
(1788-90); chaired the constitutional convention (1789-90); and 
held the governorship (1790-99), during which time he affiliated 
himself with the emerging Democratic-Republican Party. 

Although wealthy most of his life, Mifflin was a lavish spender. 
Pressure from his creditors forced him to leave Philadelphia in 1799, 
and he died at Lancaster the next year, aged 56. The Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania paid his burial expenses at the local Trinity Lutheran 
Church. 


ouvemeur Morris 

Pennsylvania 
Of French and English 
descent, Morris was bom at Mor- 
risania estate, in Westchester 
(present Bronx) County, N.Y., in 
1752. His family was wealthy and 
enjoyed a long record of public 
service. His elder half-brother, 

Lewis, signed the Declaration of 
Independence. 

Gouvemeur was educated by 
private tutors and at a Huguenot 
school in New Rochelle. In early 
life, he lost a leg in a carriage 
accident. He attended King’s Col¬ 
lege (later Columbia College and 
University) in New York City, graduating in 1768 at the age of 16. 
Three years later, after reading law in the city, he gained admission 
to the bar. 

When the Revolution loomed on the horizon, Morris became 
interested in political affairs. Because of his conservatism, however, 
he at first feared the movement, which he believed would bring mob 
rule. Furthermore, some of his family and many of his friends were 
Loyalists. But, beginning in 1775, for some reason he sided with the 

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Whigs. That same year, representing Westchester County, he took a 
seat in New York’s Revolutionary provincial congress (1775-77). In 
1776, when he also served in the militia, along with John Jay and 
Robert R. Livingston he drafted the first constitution of the state. 
Subsequently he joined its council of safety (1777). 

In 1777-78 Morris sat in the legislature and in 1778-79 in the 
Continental Congress, where he numbered among the youngest and 
most brilliant members. During this period, he signed the Articles of 
Confederation and drafted instructions for Benjamin Franklin, in Paris, 
as well as those that provided a partial basis for the treaty ending the 
War for Independence. Morris was also a close friend of Washington 
and one of his strongest congressional supporters. 

Defeated in his bid for reelection to Congress in 1779 because of 
the opposition of Gov. George Clinton’s faction, Morris relocated to 
Philadelphia and resumed the practice of law. This temporarily 
removed him from the political scene, but in 1781 he resumed his 
public career when he became the principal assistant to Robert 
Morris, Superintendent of Finance for the United States, to whom he 
was unrelated. Gouvemeur held this position for 4 years. 

Morris emerged as one of the leading figures at the Constitutional 
Convention. His speeches, more frequent than those by anyone else, 
numbered 173- Although sometimes presented in a light vein, they 
were usually substantive. A strong advocate of nationalism and aris¬ 
tocratic rule, he served on many committees, including those on 
postponed matters and style, and stood in the thick of the decision¬ 
making process. Above all, it was apparently he who actually drafted 
the Constitution. 

Morris subsequently left public life for a time to devote his 
attention to business. Having purchased the family home from his 
half-brother, Lewis, he moved back to New York, but soon, in 1789, 
on a venture in association with Robert Morris, traveled to France, 
where he witnessed the beginnings of the French Revolution. 

Morris was to remain in Europe for about a decade. In 1790-91 
he undertook a diplomatic mission to London to try to negotiate 
some of the outstanding problems between the United States and 
Great Britain. The mission failed, but in 1792 Washington appointed 
him as Minister to France, to replace Thomas Jefferson. Morris was 
recalled 2 years later but did not come home. Instead, he traveled 
extensively in Europe for more than 4 years, during which time he 
handled his complicated business affairs and contemplated the com¬ 
plex political situation. 

Morris returned to the United States in 1799. The next year, he was 
elected to finish an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate. An ardent 


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Federalist, he was defeated in his bid for reelection in 1802 and left 
office the following year. 

Morris retired to a glittering life at Morrisania, where he had built 
a new residence. In 1809 he married Anne Cary (Carey) Randolph of 
Virginia, and they had one son. During his last years, he continued 
to speak out against the Democratic-Republicans and violently op¬ 
posed the War of 1812. In the years 1810-13, he served as chairman of 
the Erie Canal Commission. 

Morris died at Morrisania in 1816 at the age of 64 and was buried 
at St. Anne’s Episcopal Churchyard, in the Bronx, New York City. 


obert Morris 

Pennsylvania 
Morris was born at or 
near Liverpool, England, in 1734. 

When he reached 13 years of age, 
he emigrated to Maryland to join 
his father, a tobacco exporter at 
Oxford, Md. After brief schooling 
at Philadelphia, the youth ob¬ 
tained employment with Thomas 
and Charles Willing’s well-known 
shipping-banking firm. In 1734 
he became a partner and for al¬ 
most four decades was one of the 
company’s directors as well as an 
influential Philadelphia citizen. 

Wedding Mary White at the age 
of 35, he fathered five sons and 
two daughters. 

During the Stamp Act turmoil 
in 1765, Morris had joined other 
merchants in protest, but not un¬ 
til the outbreak of hostilities a decade later did he fully commit 
himself to the Revolution. In 1775 the Continental Congress con¬ 
tracted with his firm to import arms and ammunition, and he was 
elected to the Pennsylvania council of safety (1775-76), the com¬ 
mittee of correspondence, the provincial assembly (1775-76), the 
legislature (1776-78), and the Continental Congress (1775-78). In 
the last body, on July 1, 1776, he voted against independence, which 
he personally considered premature, but the next day he purposely 
absented himself to facilitate an affirmative ballot by his delegation. 

1 8 5 







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Morris, a key congressman, specialized in financial affairs and 
military procurement. Although he and his firm profited handsomely, 
had it not been for his assiduous labors the Continental Army would 
probably have needed to demobilize. He worked closely with 
General Washington, wheedled money and supplies from the states, 
borrowed money in the face of overwhelming difficulties, and on 
occasion even obtained personal loans to further the war cause. 

Immediately following his congressional service, Morris sat for two 
more terms in the Pennsylvania legislature (1778-81). During this 
time, Thomas Paine and others attacked him for profiteering in 
Congress, which investigated his accounts and vindicated him. 
Nevertheless, his reputation suffered. 

Morris embarked on the most dramatic phase of his career by 
accepting the office of Superintendent of Finance (1781-84) under 
the Articles of Confederation. Congress, recognizing the perilous state 
of the nation’s finances and its impotence to provide remedies, 
granted him dictatorial powers and acquiesced to his condition that 
he be allowed to continue his private commercial enterprises. He 
slashed all governmental and military expenditures, personally pur¬ 
chased army and navy supplies, tightened accounting procedures, 
prodded the states to fulfill quotas of money and supplies, and when 
necessary strained his personal credit by issuing notes over his own 
signature or borrowing from friends. 

To finance Washington’s Yorktown campaign in 1781, in addition 
to the above techniques, Morris obtained a sizable loan from France. 
He used part of it, along with some of his own fortune, to organize 
the Bank of North America, chartered that December. The first 
government-incorporated bank in the United States, it aided war 
financing. 

Although Morris was reelected to the Pennsylvania legislature for 
1785-86, his private ventures consumed most of his time. In the latter 
year, he attended the Annapolis Convention, and the following year 
the Constitutional Convention, where he sympathized with the 
Federalists but was, for a man of his eminence, strangely silent. 
Although in attendance at practically every meeting, he spoke only 
twice in debates and did not serve on any committees. In 1789, 
declining Washington’s offer of appointment as the first Secretary of 
the Treasury, he took instead a U.S. Senate seat (1789-95). 

During the later years of his public life, Morris speculated wildly, 
often on overextended credit, in lands in the West and at the site of 
Washington, D.C. To compound his difficulties, in 1794 he began 
constructing on Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street a mansion designed by 
Maj. Pierre Charles L’Enfant. Not long thereafter, Morris attempted to 

1 8 6 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


escape creditors by retreating to The Hills, the country estate along 
the Schuylkill River on the edge of Philadelphia that he had acquired 
in 1770. 

Arrested at the behest of creditors in 1798 and forced to abandon 
completion of the mansion, thereafter known in its unfinished state 
as “Morris’ Folly,” Morris was thrown into the Philadelphia debtors’ 
prison, where he was nevertheless well treated. By the time he was 
released in 1801, under a federal bankruptcy law, however, his 
property and fortune had vanished, his health had deteriorated, and 
his spirit had been broken. He lingered on in poverty and obscurity, 
living in a simple Philadelphia home on an annuity obtained for his 
wife by fellow-signer Gouvemeur Morris. 

Robert Morris died in 1806 in his 73d year and was buried in the 
yard of Christ Church. 


illiam Paterson 

New Jersey 

William Paterson (Pat¬ 
terson) was born in County 
Antrim, Ireland, in 1745. When 
he was almost 2 years of age, his 
family emigrated to America, dis¬ 
embarking at New Castle, Del. 

While the father traveled about 
the country, apparently selling 
tinware, the family lived in New 
London, other places in Connect¬ 
icut, and in Trenton, N.J. In 1750 
he settled in Princeton, N.J. There, 
he became a merchant and 
manufacturer of tin goods. His 
prosperity enabled William to at¬ 
tend local private schools and the 
College of New Jersey (later 
Princeton). He took a BA in 1763 
and an MA 3 years later. 

Meantime, Paterson had studied 
law in the city of Princeton under Richard Stockton, who later was to 
sign the Declaration of Independence, and near the end of the 
decade began practicing at New Bromley, in Hunterdon County. 
Before long, he moved to South Branch, in Somerset County, and 
then in 1779 relocated near New Brunswick at Raritan estate. 




1 8 7 




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When the War for Independence broke out, Paterson joined the 
vanguard of the New Jersey patriots. He served in the provincial 
congress (1775-76), the constitutional convention (1776), legislative 
council (1776-77), and council of safety (1777). During the last year, 
he also held a militia commission. From 1776 to 1783 he was attorney 
general of New Jersey, a task that occupied so much of his time that 
it prevented him from accepting election to the Continental Congress 
in 1780. Meantime, the year before, he had married Cornelia Bell, by 
whom he had three children before her death in 1783- Two years 
later, he took a new bride, Euphemia White, but it is not known 
whether or not they had children. 

From 1783, when he moved into the city of New Brunswick, until 
1787, Paterson devoted his energies to the law and stayed out of the 
public limelight. Then he was chosen to represent New Jersey at the 
Constitutional Convention, which he attended only until late July. 
Until then, he took notes of the proceedings. More importantly, he 
figured prominently because of his advocacy and co-authorship of 
the New Jersey, or Paterson, Plan, which asserted the rights of the 
small states against the large. He apparently returned to the conven¬ 
tion only to sign the final document. After supporting its ratification 
in New Jersey, he began a career in the new government. 

In 1789 Paterson was elected to the U.S. Senate (1789-90), where 
he played a pivotal role in drafting the Judiciary Act of 1789. His next 
position was governor of his state (1790-93). During this time, he 
began work on the volume later published as Laws of the State of 
New Jersey (1800) and began to revise the rules and practices of the 
chancery and common law courts. 

During the years 1793-1806, Paterson served as an associate justice 
of the U.S. Supreme Court. Riding the grueling circuit to which federal 
judges were subjected in those days and sitting with the full Court, 
he presided over a number of major trials. 

In September 1806, his health failing, the 60-year-old Paterson 
embarked on a journey to Ballston Spa, N.Y., for a cure but died en 
route at Albany in the home of his daughter, who had married 
Stephen Van Rensselaer. Paterson was at first laid to rest in the nearby 
Van Rensselaer manor house family vault, but later his body was 
apparently moved to the Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, N.Y. 


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W illiam Leigh Pierce 

Georgia (No Portrait Available) 

Very little is known about William Pierce’s early life. He 
was probably born in Georgia in 1740, but he grew up in Virginia. 
During the Revolutionary War Pierce acted as an aide-de-camp to 
Gen. Nathanael Greene and eventually attained the rank of brevet 
major. For his conduct at the battle of Eutaw Springs, Congress 
presented him with a ceremonial sword. 

The year Pierce left the army, 1783, he married Charlotte Fenwick 
of South Carolina. They had two sons, one of whom died as a child. 
Pierce made his home in Savannah, where he engaged in business. 
He first organized an import-export company, Pierce, White, and Call, 
in 1783, but it dissolved less than a year later. He made a new start 
with his wife’s dowry and formed William Pierce & Company. In 1786 
he was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and was 
also elected to the Continental Congress. 

At the Constitutional Convention Pierce did not play a large role, 
but he exerted some influence and participated in three debates. He 
argued for the election of one house of the federal legislature by the 
people and one house by the states; he favored a 3-year term instead 
of a 7-year term in the second house. Because he agreed that the 
Articles had been insufficient, he recommended strengthening the 
federal government at the expense of state privileges as long as state 
distinctions were not altogether destroyed. Pierce approved of the 
resulting Constitution, but he found it necessary to leave in the 
middle of the proceedings. A decline in the European rice market 
adversely affected his business. Soon after he returned to Savannah 
he went bankrupt, having “neither the skill of an experienced mer¬ 
chant nor any reserve capital.” Only 2 years later, on December 10, 
1789, Pierce died in Savannah at age 49 leaving tremendous debts. 

Pierce’s notes on the proceedings of the convention were 
published in the Savannah Georgian in 1828. In them he wrote 
incisive character sketches that are especially valuable for the infor¬ 
mation they provide about the lesser-known delegates. 


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C harles Pinckney 

South Carolina 
Charles Pinckney, the 
second cousin of fellow-signer 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was 
born at Charleston, S.C., in 1757. 

His father, Col. Charles Pinckney, 
was a rich lawyer and planter, 
who on his death in 1782 was to 
bequeath Snee Farm, a country 
estate outside the city, to his son 
Charles. The latter apparently re¬ 
ceived all his education in the 
city of his birth, and he started to 
practice law there in 1779. 

About that time, well after the 
War for Independence had begun, 
though his father demonstrated ambivalence about the Revolution, 
young Pinckney enlisted in the militia, became a lieutenant, and 
served at the siege of Savannah (September-October 1779). When 
Charleston fell to the British the next year, the youth was captured 
and remained a prisoner until June 1781. 

Meantime, Pinckney had begun a political career, serving in the 
Continental Congress (1777-78 and 1784-87) and in the state legisla¬ 
ture (1779-80, 1786-89, and 1792-96). A nationalist, he worked hard 
in Congress to ensure that the United States would receive navigation 
rights to the Mississippi and to strengthen congressional power. 

Pinckney’s role in the Constitutional Convention is controversial. 
Although one of the youngest delegates, he later claimed to have 
been the most influential one and contended he had submitted a 
draft that was the basis of the final Constitution. Most historians have 
rejected this assertion. They do, however, recognize that he ranked 
among the leaders. He attended full time, spoke often and effectively, 
and contributed immensely to the final draft and to the resolution of 
problems that arose during the debates. He also worked for ratification 
in South Carolina (1788). That same year, he married Mary Eleanor 
Laurens, daughter of a wealthy and politically powerful South Carolina 
merchant; she was to bear at least three children. 

Subsequently, Pinckney’s career blossomed. From 1789 to 1792 he 
held the governorship of South Carolina, and in 1790 chaired the state 
constitutional convention. During this period, he became associated 
with the Federalist Party, in which he and his cousin Charles Cotes¬ 
worth Pinckney were leaders. But, with the passage of time, the 



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SKETCHES 


former’s views began to change. In 1795 he attacked the Federalist- 
backed Jay’s Treaty and increasingly began to cast his lot with Carolina 
back-country Democratic-Republicans against his own eastern aris¬ 
tocracy. In 1796 he became governor once again, and in 1798 his 
Democratic-Republican supporters helped him win a seat in the U.S. 
Senate. There, he bitterly opposed his former party, and in the 
presidential election of 1800 served as Thomas Jefferson’s campaign 
manager in South Carolina. 

The victorious Jefferson appointed Pinckney as Minister to Spain 
(1801-5), in which capacity he struggled valiantly but unsuccessfully 
to win cession of the Floridas to the United States and facilitated 
Spanish acquiescence in the transfer of Louisiana from France to the 
United States in 1803- 

Upon completion of his diplomatic mission, his ideas moving ever 
closer to democracy, Pinckney headed back to Charleston and to 
leadership of the state Democratic-Republican Party. He sat in the 
legislature in 1805-6 and then was again elected as governor 
(1806-8). In this position, he favored legislative reapportionment, 
giving better representation to back-country districts, and advocated 
universal white manhood suffrage. He served again in the legislature 
from 1810 to 1814 and then temporarily withdrew from politics. In 
1818 he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he 
fought against the Missouri Compromise. 

In 1821, Pinckney’s health beginning to fail, he retired for the last 
time from politics. He died in 1824, just 3 days after his 67th birthday. 
He was laid to rest in Charleston at St. Philip’s Episcopal Churchyard. 


1 9 1 



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SKETCHES 


C harles Cotesworth 
Pinckney 

South Carolina 

The eldest son of a politically 
prominent planter and a remark¬ 
able mother who introduced and 
promoted indigo culture in South 
Carolina, Charles Cotesworth 
Pinckney was bom in 1746 at 
Charleston. Only 7 years later, he 
accompanied his father, who had 
been appointed colonial agent for 
South Carolina, to England. As a 
result, the youth enjoyed a Euro¬ 
pean education. 

Pinckney received tutoring in 
London, attended several 
preparatory schools, and went on 
to Christ Church College, Oxford, 
where he heard the lectures of 
the legal authority Sir William Blackstone and graduated in 1764. 
Pinckney next pursued legal training at London’s Middle Temple 
and was accepted for admission into the English bar in 1769. He then 
spent part of a year touring Europe and studying chemistry, military 
science, and botany under leading authorities. 

Late in 1769, Pinckney sailed home and the next year entered 
practice in South Carolina. His political career began in 1769, when 
he was elected to the provincial assembly. In 1773 he acted as 
attorney general for several towns in the colony. By 1773 he had 
identified with the patriot cause and that year sat in the provincial 
congress. Then, the next year, he was elected to the local committee 
of safety and made chairman of a committee that drew up a plan for 
the interim government of South Carolina. 

When hostilities broke out, Pinckney, who had been a royal militia 
officer since 1769, pursued a full-time military calling. When South 
Carolina organized its forces in 1775, he joined the First South 
Carolina Regiment as a captain. He soon rose to the rank of colonel 
and fought in the South in defense of Charleston and in the North 
at the Battles of Brandywine, Pa., and Germantown, Pa. He com¬ 
manded a regiment in the campaign against the British in the Floridas 
in 1778 and at the siege of Savannah. When Charleston fell in 1780, 
he was taken prisoner and held until 1782. The following year, he 
was discharged as a brevet brigadier general. 







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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


After the war, Pinckney resumed his legal practice and the manage¬ 
ment of estates in the Charleston area but found time to continue 
his public service, which during the war had included tours in the 
lower house of the state legislature (1778 and 1782) and the senate 
(1779). 

Pinckney was one of the leaders at the Constitutional Convention. 
Present at all the sessions, he strongly advocated a powerful national 
government. His proposal that senators should serve without pay was 
not adopted, but he exerted influence in such matters as the power 
of the Senate to ratify treaties and the compromise that was reached 
concerning abolition of the international slave trade. After the con¬ 
vention, he defended the Constitution in South Carolina. 

Under the new government, Pinckney became a devoted Federalist. 
Between 1789 and 1795 he declined presidential offers to command 
the U.S. Army and to serve on the Supreme Court and as Secretary of 
War and Secretary of State. In 1796, however, he accepted the post 
of Minister to France, but the revolutionary regime there refused to 
receive him and he was forced to proceed to the Netherlands. The 
next year, though, he returned to France when he was appointed to 
a special mission to restore relations with that country. During the 
ensuing XYZ affair, refusing to pay a bribe suggested by a French 
agent to facilitate negotiations, he is said to have replied “No! No! 
Not a sixpence!” 

When Pinckney arrived back in the United States in 1798, he found 
the country preparing for war with France. That year, he was ap¬ 
pointed as a major general in command of American forces in the 
South and served in that capacity until 1800, when the threat of war 
ended. That year, he represented the Federalists as vice-presidential 
candidate, and in 1804 and 1808 as the presidential nominee. But he 
met defeat on all three occasions. 

For the rest of his life, Pinckney engaged in legal practice, served 
at times in the legislature, and engaged in philanthropic activities. He 
was a charter member of the board of trustees of South Carolina 
College (later the University of South Carolina), first president of the 
Charleston Bible Society, and chief executive of the Charleston Library 
Society. He also gained prominence in the Society of the Cincinnati, 
an organization of former officers of the War for Independence. 

During the later period of his life, Pinckney enjoyed his Belmont 
estate and Charleston high society. He was twice married; first to 
Sarah Middleton in 1773 and after her death to Mary Stead in 1786. 
Survived by three daughters, he died in Charleston in 1825 at the age 
of 79. He was interred there in the cemetery at St. Michael’s Episcopal 
Church. 


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BIOGRAPHIC 


A L 


SKETCHES 


E dmund Randolph 

Virginia 

On August 10, 1753, Ed¬ 
mund Randolph was born in 
Tazewell Hall, Williamsburg, Va. 

His parents were Ariana Jenings 
and John Randolph. Edmund at¬ 
tended the College of William 
and Mary and continued his 
education by studying the law 
under his father’s tutelage. 

When the Revolution broke 
out, father and son followed dif¬ 
ferent paths. John Randolph, a 
Loyalist, followed the royal gover¬ 
nor, Lord Dunmore, to England 
in 1775. Edmund then lived with 
his uncle Peyton Randolph, a 
prominent figure in Virginia 
politics. During the war Edmund 
served as an aide-de-camp to 
General Washington and also at¬ 
tended the convention that adopted Virginia’s first state constitution 
in 1776. He was the convention’s youngest member at age 23. 1776 
was also the year of Randolph’s marriage to Elizabeth Nicholas. 

Randolph continued to advance in the political world. He became 
mayor of Williamsburg and Virginia’s attorney-general. In 1779 he was 
elected to the Continental Congress, and in November 1786 Randolph 
became Governor of Virginia. In 1786 he was a delegate to the 
Annapolis Convention. 

Four days after the opening of the federal convention in Philadel¬ 
phia, on May 29, 1787, Edmund Randolph presented the Virginia Plan 
for creating a new government. This plan proposed a strong central 
government composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and 
judicial, and enabled the legislative to veto state laws and use force 
against states that failed to fulfill their duties. After many debates and 
revisions, including striking the section permitting force against a 
state, the Virginia Plan became in large part the basis of the Constitu¬ 
tion. 

Though Randolph introduced the highly centralized Virginia Plan, 
he fluctuated between the Federalist and Antifederalist points of view. 
He sat on the committee of detail that prepared a draft of the 
Constitution, but by the time the document was adopted, Randolph 



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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


declined to sign. He felt it was not sufficiently republican, and he 
was especially wary of creating a one-man executive. He preferred a 
three-man council since he regarded “a unity in the Executive” to be 
the “foetus of monarchy.” In a Letter... on the Federal Constitution, 
dated October 10, 1787, Randolph explained at length his objections 
to the Constitution. The old Articles of Confederation were inade¬ 
quate, he agreed, but the proposed new plan of union contained too 
many flaws. Randolph was a strong advocate of the process of 
amendment. He feared that if the Constitution were submitted for 
ratification without leaving the states the opportunity to amend it, the 
document might be rejected and thus close off any hope of another 
plan of union. However, he hoped that amendments would be 
permitted and second convention called to incorporate the changes. 

By the time of the Virginia convention for ratification, Randolph 
supported the Constitution and worked to win his state’s approval of 
it. He stated his reason for his switch: “The accession of eight states 
reduced our deliberations to the single question of Union or no 
UnionC 

Under President Washington, Edmund Randolph became Attorney 
General of the United States. After Thomas Jefferson resigned as 
Secretary of State, Randolph assumed that post for the years 1794-95. 
During the Jefferson-Hamilton conflict he tried to remain unaligned. 
After retiring from politics in 1795, Randolph resumed his law prac¬ 
tice and was regarded as a leading figure in the legal community. 
During his retirement he wrote a history of Virginia. When Aaron Burr 
went on trial for treason in 1807, Edmund Randolph acted as his 
senior counsel. In 1813, at age 60 and suffering from paralysis, 
Randolph died while visiting Nathaniel Burwell at Carter Hall. His 
body is buried in the graveyard of the nearby chapel. 


1 9 5 




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


G eorge Read 

Delaware 

Read’s mother was the 
daughter of a Welsh planter, and 
his Dublin-born father a land¬ 
holder of means. Soon after 
George’s birth in 1733 near the 
village of North East in Cecil 
County, Md., his family moved 
to New Castle, Del., where the 
youth, who was one of six sons, 
grew up. He attended school at 
Chester, Pa., and Rev. Francis 
Alison’s academy at New London, 

Pa., and about the age of 15 
he began reading with a Phila¬ 
delphia lawyer. 

In 1753 Read was admitted to 
the bar and began to practice. 

The next year, he journeyed back 
to New Castle, hung out his 
shingle, and before long enlisted 
a clientele that extended into 
Maryland. During this period he resided in New Castle but main¬ 
tained Stonum, a country retreat near the city. In 1763 he wed 
Gertrude Ross Till, the widowed sister of George Ross, like Read a 
future signer of the Declaration of Independence. She bore four sons 
and a daughter. 

While crown attorney general (1763-74) for the Three Lower 
Counties (present Delaware), Read protested against the Stamp Act. 
In 1765 he began a career in the colonial legislature that lasted more 
than a decade. A moderate Whig, he supported nonimportation 
measures and dignified protests. His attendance at the Continental 
Congress (1774-77) was irregular. Like his friend John Dickinson, he 
was willing to protect colonial rights but was wary of extremism. He 
voted against independence on July 2, 1776, the only signer of the 
Declaration to do so, apparently either bowing to the strong Tory 
sentiment in Delaware or believing reconciliation with Britain was 
still possible. 

That same year, Read gave priority to state responsibilities. He 
presided over the Delaware constitutional convention, in which he 
chaired the drafting committee, and began a term as speaker of the 
legislative council, which in effect made him vice president of the 



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B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


state. When the British took Wilmington the next fall, they captured 
the president, a resident of the city. At first, because Read was away 
in Congress, Thomas McKean, speaker of the lower house, took over 
as acting president. But in November, after barely escaping from the 
British himself while he and his family were en route to Dover from 
Philadelphia, newly occupied by the redcoats, Read assumed the 
office and held it until the spring of 1778. Back in the legislative 
council, in 1779 he drafted the act directing Delaware congressional 
delegates to sign the Articles of Confederation. 

During 1779, in poor health, Read resigned from the legislative 
council, refused reelection to Congress, and began a period of 
inactivity. During the years 1782-88, he again sat on the council and 
concurrently held the position of judge of the court of appeals in 
admiralty cases. 

Meantime, in 1784, Read had served on a commission that adjusted 
New York-Massachusetts land claims. In 1786 he attended the An¬ 
napolis Convention. The next year, he participated in the Constitu¬ 
tional Convention, where he missed few if any sessions and cham¬ 
pioned the rights of the small states. Otherwise, he adopted a 
Hamiltonian stance, favoring a strong executive. He later led the 
ratification movement in Delaware, the first state to ratify. 

In the U.S. Senate (1789-93), Read’s attendance was again erratic, 
but when present he allied with the Federalists. He resigned to accept 
the post of chief justice of Delaware. He held it until his death at 
New Castle 5 years later, just 3 days after he celebrated his 63th 
birthday. His grave is there in the Immanuel Episcopal Churchyard. 


1 9 7 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


J ohn Rutledge 

South Carolina 

John Rutledge, elder brother 
ol Edward Rutledge, signer of the 
Declaration of Independence, 
was born into a large family at or 
near Charleston, S.C., in 1739. He 
received his early education from 
his father, an Irish immigrant and 
physician, and from an Anglican 
minister and a tutor. After study¬ 
ing law at London’s Middle 
Temple in 1760, he was admitted 
to English practice. But, almost at 
once, he sailed back to Charles¬ 
ton to begin a fruitful legal career 
and to amass a fortune in plantations and slaves. Three years later, 
he married Elizabeth Grimke, who eventually bore him 10 children, 
and moved into a townhouse, where he resided most of the remainder 
of his life. 

In 1761 Rutledge became politically active. That year, on behalf of 
Christ Church Parish, he was elected to the provincial assembly and 
held his seat until the War for Independence. For 10 months in 1764 
he temporarily held the post of provincial attorney general. When the 
troubles with Great Britain intensified about the time of the Stamp 
Act in 1765, Rutledge, who hoped to ensure continued self-govern¬ 
ment for the colonies, sought to avoid severance from the British and 
maintained a restrained stance. He did, however, chair a committee 
of the Stamp Act Congress that drew up a petition to the House of 
Lords. 

In 1774 Rutledge was sent to the First Continental Congress, where 
he pursued a moderate course. After spending the next year in the 
Second Continental Congress, he returned to South Carolina and 
helped reorganize its government. In 1776 he served on the com¬ 
mittee of safety and took part in the writing of the state constitution. 
That year, he also became president of the lower house of the 
legislature, a post he held until 1778. During this period, the new 
government met many stem tests. 

In 1778 the conservative Rutledge, disapproving of democratic 
revisions in the state constitution, resigned his position. The next 
year, however, he was elected as governor. It was a difficult time. The 
British were invading South Carolina and the military situation was 
desperate. Early in 1780, by which time the legislature had adjourned, 



1 9 8 



OGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Charleston was besieged. In May it fell, the American army was 
captured, and the British confiscated Rutledge’s property. He ul¬ 
timately escaped to North Carolina and set about attempting to rally 
forces to recover South Carolina. In 1781, aided by Gen. Nathanael 
Greene and a new Continental Army force, he reestablished the 
government. In January 1782 he resigned the governorship and took 
a seat in the lower house of the legislature. He never recouped the 
financial losses he suffered during the war. 

In 1782-83 Rutledge was a delegate to the Continental Congress. 
He next sat on the state chancery court (1784) and again in the lower 
house of the legislature (1784-90). One of the most influential 
delegates at the Constitutional Convention, where he maintained a 
moderate nationalist stance and chaired the committee of detail, he 
attended all the sessions, spoke often and effectively, and served on 
five committees. Like his fellow South Carolina delegates, he 
vigorously advocated southern interests. 

The new government under the Constitution soon lured Rutledge. 
He was a presidential elector in 1789 and Washington then appointed 
him as associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, but for some 
reason he apparently served only a short time. In 1791 he became 
chief justice of the South Carolina supreme court. Four years later, 
Washington again appointed him to the U.S. Supreme Court, this time 
as Chief Justice to replace John Jay. But Rutledge’s outspoken opposi¬ 
tion to Jay’s Treaty (1794), and the intermittent mental illness he had 
suffered from since the death of his wife in 1792, caused the 
Federalist-dominated Senate to reject his appointment and end his 
public career. Meantime, however, he had presided over one term of 
the Court. 

Rutledge died in 1800 at the age of 60 and was interred at St. 
Michael’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. 


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SKETCHES 


R oger Sherman 

Connecticut 

In 1723, when Sherman 
was 2 years of age, his family 
relocated from his Newton, Mass., 
birthplace to Dorchester (present 
Stoughton). As a boy, he was 
spurred by a desire to learn and 
read widely in his spare time to 
supplement his minimal educa¬ 
tion at a common school. But he 
spent most of his waking hours 
helping his father with farming 
chores and learning the cobbler’s 
trade from him. In 1743, 2 years 
after his father’s death, Sherman 
joined an elder brother who had 
settled in New Milford, Conn. 

Purchasing a store, becoming a 
county surveyor, and winning a 
variety of town offices, Sherman 
prospered and assumed leader¬ 
ship in the community. In 1749 he married Elizabeth Hartwell, by 
whom he had seven children. Without benefit of a formal legal 
education, he was admitted to the bar in 1734 and embarked upon 
a distinguished judicial and political career. In the period 1755-61, 
except for a brief interval, he served as a representative in the colonial 
legislature and held the offices of justice of the peace and county 
judge. Somehow he also eked out time to publish an essay on 
monetary theory and a series of almanacs incorporating his own 
astronomical observations and verse. 

In 1761, abandoning his law practice, Sherman moved to New 
Haven, Conn. There, he managed a store that catered to Yale students 
and another in nearby Wallingford. He also became a friend and 
benefactor of Yale College, functioning for many years as its treasurer. 
In 1763, or 3 years after the death of his first wife, he wed Rebecca 
Prescott, who bore eight children. 

Meanwhile, Sherman’s political career had blossomed. He rose 
from justice of the peace and county judge to an associate judge of 
the Connecticut Superior Court and to representative in both houses 
of the colonial assembly. Although opposed to extremism, he early 
joined the fight against Britain. He supported nonimportation 
measures and headed the New Haven committee of correspondence. 



2 0 0 








B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Sherman was a longtime and influential member of the Continental 
Congress (1774-81 and 1783-84). He won membership on the 
committees that drafted the Declaration of Independence and the 
Articles of Confederation, as well as those concerned with Indian 
affairs, national finances, and military matters. To solve economic 
problems, at both national and state levels, he advocated high taxes 
rather than excessive borrowing or the issuance of paper currency. 

While in Congress, Sherman remained active in state and local 
politics, continuing to hold the office of judge of the Connecticut 
Superior Court, as well as membership on the council of safety 
(1777-79). In 1783 he helped codify Connecticut’s statutory laws. The 
next year, he was elected as mayor of New Haven (1784-86). 

Although on the edge of insolvency, mainly because of wartime 
losses, Sherman could not resist the lure of national service. In 1787 
he represented his state at the Constitutional Convention, and at¬ 
tended practically every session. Not only did he sit on the committee 
on postponed matters, but he also probably helped draft the New 
Jersey Plan and was a prime mover behind the Connecticut, or Great, 
Compromise, which broke the deadlock between the large and small 
states over representation. He was, in addition, instrumental in Con¬ 
necticut’s ratification of the Constitution. 

Sherman capped his career by serving in the U.S. House of 
Representatives (1789-91) and Senate (1791-93), where he espoused 
the Federalist cause. He died at New Haven in 1793 at the age of 72 
and is buried in the Grove Street Cemetery. 


2 0 1 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


R ichard Dobbs 
Spaight, Sr. 

North Carolina 

Of distinguished English-Irish 
parentage, Spaight was born at 
New Bern, N.C., in 1758. When 
he was orphaned at 8 years of 
age, his guardians sent him to 
Ireland, where he obtained an ex¬ 
cellent education. He apparently 
graduated from Scotland’s Glas¬ 
gow University before he returned 
to North Carolina in 1778. 

At that time, the War for In¬ 
dependence was in full swing, 
and Spaight’s superior attainments 
soon gained him a commission. 

He became an aide to the state 
militia commander and in 1780 
took part in the Battle of Cam¬ 
den, S.C. The year before, he had 
been elected to the lower house of the legislature. 

In 1781 Spaight left the military service to devote full time to his 
legislative duties. He represented New Bern and Craven County 
(1781-83 and 1785-87); in 1785 he became speaker. Between terms, 
he also served in the Continental Congress (1783-85). 

In 1787, at the age of 29, Spaight joined the North Carolina 
delegation to the Philadelphia convention. He was not a leader but 
spoke on several occasions and numbered among those who at¬ 
tended every session. After the convention, he worked in his home 
state for acceptance of the Constitution. 

Spaight met defeat in bids for the governorship in 1787 and the 
U.S. Senate 2 years later. From then until 1792, illness forced his 
retirement from public life, during which time he visited the West 
Indies, but he captured the governorship in the latter year (1792-95). 
In 1793 he served as presidential elector. Two years later, he wed 
Mary Leach, who bore three children. 

In 1798 Spaight entered the U.S. House of Representatives as a 
Democratic-Republican and remained in office until 1801. During this 
time, he advocated repeal of the Alien and Sedition Acts and voted 
for Jefferson in the contested election of 1800. The next year, Spaight 
was voted into the lower house of the North Carolina legislature; the 
following year, to the upper. 



2 0 2 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Only 44 years old in 1802, Spaight was struck down in a duel at 
New Bern with a political rival, Federalist John Stanly. So ended the 
promising career of one of the state’s foremost leaders. He was buried 
in the family sepulcher at Clermont estate, near New Bern. 


aleb Strong 

Massachusetts 
The son of Caleb and 
Phebe Strong, young Strong was 
bom on January 9, 1745 in North¬ 
ampton, Mass. He received his 
college education at Harvard, 
from which he graduated with 
highest honors in 1764. Like so 
many of the delegates to the 
Constitutional Convention, Strong 
chose to study law and was ad¬ 
mitted to the bar in 1772 and 
enjoyed a prosperous country 
practice. 

From 1774 through the dura¬ 
tion of the Revolution, Strong 
was a member of Northampton’s 
committee of safety. In 1776 he 
was elected to the Massachusetts 
General Court and also held the 
post of county attorney for 
Hampshire County for 24 years. He was offered a position on the 
state supreme court in 1783 but declined it. 

At the Constitutional Convention, Strong counted himself among 
the delegates who favored a strong central government. He success¬ 
fully moved that the House of Representatives should originate all 
money bills and sat on the drafting committee. Though he preferred 
a system that accorded the same rank and mode of election to both 
houses of Congress, he voted in favor of equal representation in the 
Senate and proportional in the House. Strong was called home on 
account of illness in his family and so missed the opportunity to sign 
the Constitution. However, during the Massachusetts ratifying conven¬ 
tion, he took a leading role among the Federalists and campaigned 
strongly for ratification. 

Massachusetts chose Strong as one of its first U.S. senators in 1789. 
During the 4 years he served in that house, he sat on numerous 

2 0 3 







BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


committees and participated in framing the Judiciary Act. Caleb Strong 
wholeheartedly supported the Washington administration. In 1793 he 
urged the government to send a mission to England and backed the 
resulting Jay’s Treaty when it met heated opposition. 

Caleb Strong, the Federalist candidate, defeated Elbridge Gerry to 
become Governor of Massachusetts in 1800. Despite the growing 
strength of the Democratic party in the state, Strong won reelection 
annually until 1807. In 1812 he regained the governorship, once again 
over Gerry, and retained his post until he retired in 1816. During the 
War of 1812 Strong withstood pressure from the Secretary of War to 
order part of the Massachusetts militia into federal service. Strong 
opposed the war and approved the report of the Hartford Convention, 
a gathering of New England Federalists resentful of Jeffersonian 
policies. 

Strong died on November 7, 1819, 2 years after the death of his 
wife, Sarah. He was buried in the Bridge Street Cemetary in North¬ 
ampton. Four of his nine children survived him. 


eorge Washington 

Virginia 

The eldest of six children 
from his father’s second marriage, 

George Washington was born 
into the landed gentry in 1732 at 
Wakefield Plantation, Va. Until 
reaching 16 years of age, he lived 
there and at other plantations 
along the Potomac and Rappahan¬ 
nock Rivers, including the one 
that later became known as 
Mount Vernon. His education was 
rudimentary, probably being ob¬ 
tained from tutors but possibly 
also from private schools, and he 
learned surveying. After he lost 
his father when he was 11 years 
old, his half-brother Lawrence, 
who had served in the Royal 
Navy, acted as his mentor. As a result, the youth acquired an interest 
in pursuing a naval career, but his mother discouraged him from 
doing so. 




2 0 4 




B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


At the age of 16, in 1748, Washington joined a surveying party sent 
out to the Shenandoah Valley by Lord Fairfax, a land baron. For the 
next few years, Washington conducted surveys in Virginia and present 
West Virginia and gained a lifetime interest in the West. In 1751-52 
he also accompanied Lawrence on a visit he made to Barbados, West 
Indies, for health reasons just before his death. 

The next year, Washington began his military career when the royal 
governor appointed him to an adjutantship in the militia, as a major. 
That same year, as a gubernatorial emissary, accompanied by a guide, 
he traveled to Fort Le Boeuf, Pa., in the Ohio River Valley, and 
delivered to French authorities an ultimatum to cease fortification and 
settlement in English territory. During the trip, he tried to better 
British relations with various Indian tribes. 

In 1754, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel and then colonel 
in the militia, Washington led a force that sought to challenge French 
control of the Ohio River Valley, but met defeat at Fort Necessity, 
Pa.—an event that helped trigger the French and Indian War 
(1754-63). Late in 1754, irked by the dilution of his rank because of 
the pending arrival of British regulars, he resigned his commission. 
That same year, he leased Mount Vernon, which he was to inherit in 
1761. 

In 1755 Washington reentered military service with the courtesy 
title of colonel, as an aide to Gen. Edward Braddock, and barely 
escaped death when the French defeated the general’s forces in the 
Battle of the Monongahela, Pa. As a reward for his bravery, Washington 
rewon his colonelcy and command of the Virginia militia forces, 
charged with defending the colony’s frontier. Because of the shortage 
of men and equipment, he found the assignment challenging. Late 
in 1758 or early in 1759, disillusioned over governmental neglect of 
the militia and irritated at not rising in rank, he resigned and headed 
back to Mount Vernon. 

Washington then wed Martha Dandridge Custis, a wealthy widow 
and mother of two children. The marriage produced no offspring, but 
Washington reared those of his wife as his own. During the period 
1759-74, he managed his plantations and sat in the Virginia House 
of Burgesses. He supported the initial protests against British policies; 
took an active part in the nonimportation movement in Virginia; and, 
in time, particularly because of his military experience, became a 
Whig leader. 

By the 1770s, relations of the colony with the mother country had 
become strained. Measured in his behavior but strongly sympathetic 
to the Whig position and resentful of British restrictions and com¬ 
mercial exploitation, Washington represented Virginia at the First and 

2 0 5 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Second Continental Congresses. In 1775, after the bloodshed at 
Lexington and Concord, Congress appointed him as commander in 
chief of the Continental Army. Overcoming severe obstacles, espe¬ 
cially in supply, he eventually fashioned a well-trained and dis¬ 
ciplined fighting force. 

The strategy Washington evolved consisted of continual harassment 
of British forces while avoiding general actions. Although his troops 
yielded much ground and lost a number of battles, they per¬ 
severed—even during the dark winters at Valley Forge, Pa., and Mor¬ 
ristown, N.J. Finally, with the aid of the French fleet and army, he 
won a climactic victory at the Battle of Yorktown, Va., in 1781. 

During the next 2 years, while still commanding the agitated 
Continental Army, which was underpaid and poorly supplied, 
Washington denounced proposals that the military take over the 
government, including one that planned to appoint him as king, but 
supported army petitions to the Continental Congress for proper 
compensation. Once the Treaty of Paris (1783) was signed, he 
resigned his commission and returned once again to Mount Vernon. 
His wartime financial sacrifices and long absence, as well as generous 
loans to friends, had severely impaired his extensive fortune, which 
consisted mainly of his plantations, slaves, and landholdings in the 
West. At this point, however, he was to have little time to repair his 
finances, for his retirement was brief. 

Dissatisfied with national progress under the Articles of Confedera¬ 
tion, Washington advocated a stronger central government. He hosted 
the Mount Vernon Conference (1785) at his estate after its initial 
meetings in Alexandria, though he apparently did not directly par¬ 
ticipate in the discussions. Despite his sympathy with the goals of 
the Annapolis Convention (1786), he did not attend. But, the follow¬ 
ing year, encouraged by many of his friends, he presided over the 
Constitutional Convention, whose success was immeasurably in¬ 
fluenced by his presence and dignity. Following ratification of the 
new instrument of government in 1788, the electoral college unan¬ 
imously chose him as the first President. 

The next year, after a triumphal journey from Mount Vernon to 
New York City, Washington took the oath of office at Federal Hall. 
During his two precedent-setting terms, he governed with dignity as 
well as restraint. He also provided the stability and authority the 
emergent nation so sorely needed, gave substance to the Constitu¬ 
tion, and reconciled competing factions and divergent policies within 
the government and his administration. Although not averse to exer¬ 
cising presidential power, he respected the role of Congress and did 
not infringe upon its prerogatives. He also tried to maintain harmony 

2 0 6 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


between his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the 
Treasury Alexander Hamilton, whose differences typified evolving 
party divisions, from which Washington kept aloof 

Yet, usually leaning upon Hamilton for advice, Washington sup¬ 
ported his plan for the assumption of state debts, concurred in the 
constitutionality of the bill establishing the Bank of the United States, 
and favored enactment of tariffs by Congress to provide federal 
revenue and protect domestic manufacturers. 

Washington took various other steps to strengthen governmental 
authority, including suppression of the Whisky Rebellion (1794). To 
unify the country, he toured the Northeast in 1789 and the South in 
1791. During his tenure, the government moved from New York to 
Philadelphia in 1790, he superintended planning for relocation to the 
District of Columbia, and he laid the cornerstone of the Capitol 
(1793). 

In foreign affairs, despite opposition from the Senate, Washington 
exerted dominance. He fostered United States interests on the North 
American continent by treaties with Britain and Spain. Yet, until the 
nation was stronger, he insisted on the maintenance of neutrality. For 
example, when the French Revolution created war between France 
and Britain, he ignored the remonstrances of pro-French Jefferson 
and pro-English Hamilton. 

Although many people encouraged Washington to seek a third 
term, he was weary of politics and refused to do so. In his “Farewell 
Address” (1796), he urged his countrymen to forswear party spirit 
and sectional differences and to avoid entanglement in the wars and 
domestic policies of other nations. 

Washington enjoyed only a few years of retirement at Mount 
Vernon. Even then, demonstrating his continued willingness to make 
sacrifices for his country, in 1798 when the nation was on the verge 
of war with France he agreed to command the army, though his 
services were not ultimately required. He died at the age of 67 in 
1799. In his will, he emancipated his slaves. 


2 0 7 



B IOGRAPHICA 


H ugh Williamson 

North Carolina 
The versatile Williamson 
was bom of Scotch-Irish descent 
at West Nottingham, Pa., in 1735. 

He was the eldest son in a large 
family, whose head was a clothier. 

Hoping he would become a Pres¬ 
byterian minister, his parents 
oriented his education toward 
that calling. After attending 
preparatory schools at New Lon¬ 
don Cross Roads, Del., and 
Newark, Del., he entered the first 
class of the College of Philadel¬ 
phia (later part of the University 
of Pennsylvania) and took his 
degree in 1757. 

The next 2 years, at Ship- 
pensburg, Pa., Williamson spent 
settling his father’s estate. Then 
training in Connecticut for the 
ministry, he soon became a licensed Presbyterian preacher but was 
never ordained. Around this time, he also took a position as professor 
of mathematics at his alma mater. 

In 1764 Williamson abandoned these pursuits and studied 
medicine at Edinburgh, London, and Utrecht, eventually obtaining a 
degree from the University of Utrecht. Returning to Philadelphia, he 
began to practice but found it to be emotionally exhausting. His 
pursuit of scientific interests continued, and in 1768 he became a 
member of the American Philosophical Society. The next year, he 
served on a commission that observed the transits of Venus and 
Mercury. In 1771 he wrote An Essay on Comets , in which he advanced 
several original ideas. As a result, the University of Leyden awarded 
him an LL.D. degree. 

In 1773, to raise money for an academy in Newark, Del., William¬ 
son made a trip to the West Indies and then to Europe. Sailing from 
Boston, he saw the Tea Party and carried news of it to London. When 
the British Privy Council called on him to testify as to what he had 
seen, he warned the councilors that the colonies would rebel if the 
British did not change their policies. While in England, he struck up 
a close friendship with fellow-scientist Benjamin Franklin, and they 
cooperated in electrical experiments. Moreover, Williamson furnished 



2 0 8 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


to Franklin the letters of Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas 
Hutchinson to his lieutenant governor that tended to further alienate 
the mother country and colonies and created a sensation in America. 

In 1775 a pamphlet Williamson had written while in England, 
called The Plea of the Colonies, was published. It solicited the support 
of the English Whigs for the American cause. When the United States 
proclaimed their independence the next year, Williamson was in the 
Netherlands. He soon sailed back to the United States, settling first 
in Charleston, S.C., and then in Edenton, N.C. There, he prospered 
in a mercantile business that traded with the French West Indies and 
once again took up the practice of medicine. 

Williamson applied for a medical post with the patriot forces, but 
found all such positions filled. The Governor of North Carolina, 
however, soon called on his specialized skills, and he became 
surgeon-general of state troops. After the Battle of Camden, S.C., he 
frequently crossed British lines to tend to the wounded. He also 
prevented sickness among the troops by paying close attention to 
food, clothing, shelter, and hygiene. 

After the war, Williamson began his political career. In 1782 he 
was elected to the lower house of the state legislature and to the 
Continental Congress. Three years later, he left Congress and returned 
to his legislative seat. In 1786 he was chosen to represent his state 
at the Annapolis Convention but arrived too late to take part. The 
next year, he again served in Congress (1787-89) and was chosen as 
a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. Attending faithfully and 
demonstrating keen debating skill, he served on five committees, 
notably on the committee on postponed matters, and played a 
significant part in the proceedings, particularly the major compromise 
on representation. 

After the convention, Williamson worked for ratification of the 
Constitution in North Carolina. In 1788 he was chosen to settle 
outstanding accounts between the state and the federal government. 
The next year, he was elected to the first U.S. House of Representa¬ 
tives, where he served two terms. In 1789 he married Maria Apthorpe, 
who bore at least two sons. 

In 1793 Williamson moved to New York City to facilitate his literary 
and philanthropic pursuits. Over the years, he published many politi¬ 
cal, educational, economic, historical, and scientific works, but the 
last earned him the most praise. The University of Leyden awarded 
him an honorary degree. In addition, he was an original trustee of 
the University of North Carolina and later held trusteeships at the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons and the University of the State of 
New York. He was also a founder of the Literary and Philosophical 


2 0 9 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


Society of New York and a prominent member of the New-York 
Historical Society. 

In 1819, at the age of 83, Williamson died in New York City and 
was buried at Trinity Church. 


J ames Wilson 

Pennsylvania 

Wilson was born in 1741 or 
1742 at Carskerdo, near St. 

Andrews, Scotland, and educated 
at the universities of St. Andrews, 

Glasgow, and Edinburgh. He then 
emigrated to America, arriving in 
the midst of the Stamp Act agita¬ 
tions in 1763. Early the next year, 
he accepted a position as Latin 
tutor at the College of Philadel¬ 
phia (later part of the University 
of Pennsylvania) but almost im¬ 
mediately abandoned it to study 
law under John Dickinson. 

In 1768, the year after his ad¬ 
mission to the Philadelphia bar, 

Wilson set up practice at Reading, 

Pa. Two years later, he moved westward to the Scotch-Irish settle¬ 
ment of Carlisle, and the following year he took a bride, Rachel Bird. 
He specialized in land law and built up a broad clientele. On bor¬ 
rowed capital, he also began to speculate in land. In some way he 
managed, too, to lecture on English literature at the College of Phila¬ 
delphia, which had awarded him an honorary master of arts degree 
in 1766. 

Wilson became involved in Revolutionary politics. In 1774 he took 
over chairmanship of the Carlisle committee of correspondence, 
attended the first provincial assembly, and completed preparation of 
Considerations on the Nature and Extent of the Legislative Authority 
of the British Parliament. This tract circulated widely in England and 
America and established him as a Whig leader. 

The next year, Wilson was elected to both the provincial assembly 
and the Continental Congress, where he sat mainly on military and 
Indian affairs committees. In 1776, reflecting the wishes of his 
constituents, he joined the moderates in Congress voting for a 3-week 
delay in considering Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of June 7 for 



2 1 0 









B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


independence. On the July 1 and 2 ballots on the issue, however, he 
voted in the affirmative and signed the Declaration of Independence 
on August 2. 

Wilson’s strenuous opposition to the republican Pennsylvania con¬ 
stitution of 1776, besides indicating a switch to conservatism on his 
part, led to his removal from Congress the following year. To avoid 
the clamor among his frontier constituents, he repaired to Annapolis 
during the winter of 1777-78 and then took up residence in Philadel¬ 
phia. 

Wilson affirmed his newly assumed political stance by closely 
identifying with the aristocratic and conservative republican groups, 
multiplying his business interests, and accelerating his land specula¬ 
tion. He also took a position as Advocate General for France in 
America (1779-83), dealing with commercial and maritime matters, 
and legally defended Loyalists and their sympathizers. 

In the fall of 1779, during a period of inflation and food shortages, 
a mob, including many militiamen and led by radical-consti¬ 
tutionalists, set out to attack the republican leadership. Wilson was 
a prime target. He and some 33 of his colleagues barricaded them¬ 
selves in his home at Third and Walnut Streets, thereafter known as 
“Fort Wilson.” During a brief skirmish, several people on both sides 
were killed or wounded. The shock cooled sentiments and pardons 
were issued all around, though major political battles over the 
commonwealth constitution still lay ahead. 

During 1781 Congress appointed Wilson as one of the directors of 
the Bank of North America, newly founded by his close associate and 
legal client Robert Morris. In 1782, by which time the conservatives 
had regained some of their power, the former was reelected to 
Congress, and he also served in the period 1785-87. 

Wilson reached the apex of his career in the Constitutional Con¬ 
vention (1787), where his influence was probably second only to that 
of Madison. Rarely missing a session, he sat on the committee of 
detail and in many other ways applied his excellent knowledge of 
political theory to convention problems. Only Gouverneur Morris 
delivered more speeches. 

That same year, overcoming powerful opposition, Wilson led the 
drive for ratification in Pennsylvania, the second state to endorse the 
instrument. The new commonwealth constitution, drafted in 1789-90 
along the lines of the U.S. Constitution, was primarily Wilson’s work 
and represented the climax of his 14-year fight against the constitu¬ 
tion of 1776. 

For his services in the formation of the federal government, though 
Wilson expected to be appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, 

2 1 1 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


in 1789 President Washington named him as an associate justice. He 
was chosen that same year as the first law professor at the College 
of Philadelphia. Two years later he began an official digest of the 
laws of Pennsylvania, a project he never completed, though he carried 
on for a while after funds ran out. 

Wilson, who wrote only a few opinions, did not achieve the 
success on the Supreme Court that his capabilities and experience 
promised. Indeed, during those years he was the object of much 
criticism and barely escaped impeachment. For one thing, he tried 
to influence the enactment of legislation in Pennsylvania favorable to 
land speculators. Between 1792 and 1795 he also made huge but 
unwise land investments in western New York and Pennsylvania, as 
well as in Georgia. This did not stop him from conceiving a grandiose 
but ill-fated scheme, involving vast sums of European capital, for the 
recruitment of European colonists and their settlement in the West. 
Meantime, in 1793, a widower with six children, he had remarried, 
to Hannah Gray; their one son died in infancy. 

Four years later, to avoid arrest for debt, the distraught Wilson 
moved from Philadelphia to Burlington, N.J. The next year, apparently 
while on federal circuit court business, he arrived at Edenton, N.C., 
in a state of acute mental stress and was taken into the home of 
James Iredell, a fellow Supreme Court justice. He died there within 
a few months. Although first buried at Hayes Plantation near Edenton, 
his remains were later reinterred in the yard of Christ Church at 
Philadelphia. 


2 1 2 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


G eorge Wythe 

Virginia 

George Wythe, the 
second of Thomas and Margaret 
Wythe’s three children, was bom 
in 1726 on his family’s plantation 
on the Back River in Elizabeth 
City County, Va. Both parents 
died when Wythe was young, and 
he grew up under the guardian¬ 
ship of his older brother, Thomas. 

Though Wythe was to become an 
eminent jurist and teacher, he 
received very little formal educa¬ 
tion. He learned Latin and Greek 
from his well-educated mother, 
and he probably attended for a 
time a grammar school operated 
by the College of William and 
Mary. 

’Wfythe’s brother later sent him 
to Prince George County to read 
law under an uncle. In 1746, at age 20, he joined the bar, moved to 
Spotsylvania County, and became associated with a lawyer there. In 
1747 he married his partner’s sister, Ann Lewis, but she died the next 
year. In 1754 Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie appointed him as acting 
colonial attorney general, a position that he held for only a few 
months. The next year, Wythe’s brother died and he inherited the 
family estate. He chose, however, to live in Williamsburg in the house 
that his new father-in-law, an architect, designed and built for him 
and his wife, Elizabeth Taliaferro. They married in 1755, and their 
only child died in infancy. 

At Williamsburg, Wythe immersed himself in further study of the 
classics and the law and achieved accreditation by the colonial 
supreme court. He served in the House of Burgesses from the 
mid-1750s until 1775, first as delegate and after 1769 as clerk. In 1768 
he became mayor of Williamsburg, and the next year he sat on the 
board of visitors of the College of William and Mary. During these 
years he also directed the legal studies of young scholars, notably 
Thomas Jefferson. Wythe and Jefferson maintained a lifelong 
friendship, first as mentor and pupil and later as political allies. 

Wythe first exhibited revolutionary leanings in 1764 when Parlia¬ 
ment hinted to the colonies that it might impose a stamp tax. By 



2 1 3 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


then an experienced legislator, he drafted for the House of Burgesses 
a remonstrance to Parliament so strident that his fellow delegates 
modified it before adoption. Wythe was one of the first to express 
the concept of separate nationhood for the colonies within the British 
empire. 

When war broke out, Wythe volunteered for the army but was sent 
to the Continental Congress. Although present from 1775 through 
1776, Wythe exerted little influence and signed the Declaration of 
Independence after the formal signing in August 1776. That same 
year, Wythe, Jefferson, and Edmund Pendleton undertook a 3-year 
project to revise Virginia’s legal code. In 1777 Wythe also presided 
as speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates. 

An appointment as one of the three judges of the newly created 
Virginia high court of chancery followed in 1778. For 28 years, during 
13 of which he was the only chancellor, Wythe charted the course of 
Virginia jurisprudence. In addition, he was an ex officio member of 
the state superior court. 

Wythe’s real love was teaching. In 1779 Jefferson and other officials 
of the College of William and Mary created the first chair of law in 
a U.S. institution of higher learning and appointed Wythe to fill it. In 
that position, he educated America’s earliest college-trained lawyers, 
among them John Marshall and James Monroe. In 1787 he attended 
the Constitutional Convention but played an insignificant role. He left 
the proceedings early and did not sign the Constitution. The follow¬ 
ing year, however, he was one of the Federalist leaders at the Virginia 
ratifying convention. There he presided over the committee of the 
whole and offered the resolution for ratification. 

In 1791, the year after Wythe resigned his professorship, his 
chancery duties caused him to move to Richmond, the state capital. 
He was reluctant to give up his teaching, however, and opened a 
private law school. One of his last and most promising pupils was 
young Henry Clay. 

In 1806, in his eightieth year, Wythe died at Richmond under 
mysterious circumstances—probably of poison administered by his 
grandnephew and heir, George Wythe Sweeney. Reflecting a lifelong 
aversion to slavery, Wythe emancipated his slaves in his will. His 
grave is in the yard of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond. 


2 1 4 



B IOGRAPHICAL 


SKETCHES 


R obert Yates 

New York (No Portrait Available) 

The son of Joseph and Maria Yates, Robert Yates was born in 
Schenectady, NY., on January 27, 1738. He received a classical educa¬ 
tion in New York City and later studied law with William Livingston. 
Yates was admitted to the New York bar in 1760 and thereafter 
resided in Albany. 

Between 1771 and 1775 Yates sat on the Albany board of aldermen. 
During the pre-Revolution years Yates counted himself among the 
Radical Whigs, whose vigilance against corruption and emphasis on 
the protection of liberty in England appealed to many in the colonies. 
Once the Revolution broke out, Yates served on the Albany com¬ 
mittee of safety and represented his county in four provincial con¬ 
gresses and in the convention of 1775-77. At the convention he sat 
on various committees, including the one that drafted the first 
constitution for New York State. 

On May 8, 1777 Yates was appointed to New York’s supreme court 
and presided as its chief justice from 1790 through 1798. While on 
the bench he attracted criticism for his fair treatment of Loyalists. 
Other duties included serving on commissions that were called to 
settle boundary disputes with Massachusetts and Vermont. 

In the 1780s Robert Yates stood as a recognized leader of the 
Antifederalists. He opposed any concessions to the federal congress, 
such as the right to collect impost duties, that might diminish the 
sovereignty of the states. When he travelled to Philadelphia in May 
1787 for the federal convention, he expected that the delegates would 
simply discuss revising the existing Articles. Yates was on the com¬ 
mittee that debated the question of representation in the legislature, 
and it soon became apparent that the convention intended much 
more than modification of the current plan of union. On July 5, the 
day the committee presented its report, Yates and John Lansing (to 
whom Yates was related by marriage) left the proceedings. In a joint 
letter to Gov. George Clinton of New York, they spelled out the 
reasons for their early departure. They warned against the dangers of 
centralizing power and urged opposition to adopting the Constitu¬ 
tion. Yates continued to attack the Constitution in a series of letters 
signed “Brutus” and “Sydney” and voted against ratification at the 
Poughkeepsie convention. 

In 1789 Yates ran for governor of New York but lost the election. 
Three years after his retirement from the state supreme court, on 
September 9, 1801, he died, leaving his wife, Jannetje Van Ness Yates, 
and four of his six children. Though he had enjoyed a comfortable 
income at the start of his career, his capital had dwindled away until 


2 1 5 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES 


very little was left. In 1821 his notes from the Constitutional Conven¬ 
tion were published under the title Secret Proceedings and Debates 
of the Convention Assembled. . . for the Purpose of Forming the 
Constitution of the United States. 


2 1 6 



APPENDIX 


Framers of the Constitution: 
THE CONSTITUTION 
AND ITS HISTORY 















CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


W e the people of the United States, in Order to form a more 
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, 
provide for the common defence, promote the general 
Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our 
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United 
States of America. 

ARTICLE. I. 

Section. 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House 
of Representatives. 

Section. 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members 
chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the 
Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of 
the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. 

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the 
Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included within this Union, according to their respec¬ 
tive Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number 
of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and 
excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual 
Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the 
Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten 
Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of 
Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each 
State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration 
shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, 
Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connect¬ 
icut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, 
Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and 
Georgia three. 

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Execu¬ 
tive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. 

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other 
Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. 

Section. 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; 
and each Senator shall have one Vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first 
Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The 
Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of 
the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, 
and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third 


2 1 9 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


TS HISTORY 


may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, 
or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive 
thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the 
Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. 

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of 
thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who 
shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall 
be chosen. 

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, 
but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro 
tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise 
the Office of President of the United States. 

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When 
sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the 
President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And 
no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the 
Members present. 

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to 
removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of 
honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall 
nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and 
Punishment, according to Law. 

Section. 4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for 
Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the 
Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter 
such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such 
Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by 
Law appoint a different Day. 

Section. 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and 
Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute 
a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to 
day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, 
in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. 

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its 
Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, 
expel a Member. 

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to 
time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment 
require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House 
on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered 
on the Journal. 

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Con¬ 
sent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place 
than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. 


2 2 0 



CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


Section. 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensa¬ 
tion for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the 
Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony 
and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance 
at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning 
from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall 
not be questioned in any other Place. 

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United 
States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall 
have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office 
under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his 
Continuance in Office. 

Section. 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of 
Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments 
as on other Bills. 

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the 
Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the 
United States; If he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, 
with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who 
shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to 
reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall 
agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the 
other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved 
by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases 
the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the 
Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on 
the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by 
the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been 
presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had 
signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in 
which Case it shall not be a Law. 

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of 
Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and 
before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being 
disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and 
House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed 
in the Case of a Bill. 

Section. 8. The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, 
Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common 
Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts 
and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; 

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes; 


2 2 1 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the 
subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix 
the Standard of Weights and Measures; 

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and 
current Coin of the United States; 

To establish Post Offices and post Roads; 

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for 
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respec¬ 
tive Writings and Discoveries; 

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court; 

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, 
and Offences against the Law of Nations; 

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules 
concerning Captures on Land and Water; 

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use 
shall be for a longer Term than two Years; 

To provide and maintain a Navy; 

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval 
Forces; 

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, 
suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for 
governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the 
United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the 
Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline 
prescribed by Congress; 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such 
District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular 
States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government 
of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased 
by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, 
for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful 
Buildings;—And 

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into 
Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this 
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department 
or Officer thereof. 

Section. 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the 
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 
the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but 
a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten 
dollars for each Person. 

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require 
it. 

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. 


2 2 2 



CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to 
the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. 

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue 
to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, 
or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear, or pay Duties in another. 

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of 
Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the 
Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from 
time to time. 

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person 
holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent 
of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any 
kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. 

Section. 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confedera¬ 
tion; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; 
make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; 
pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obliga¬ 
tion of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. 

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or 
Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for 
executing it’s inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and 
Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of 
the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the 
Revision and Controul of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, 
keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement 
or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, 
unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of 
delay. 


ARTICLE. II. 

Section. 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the 
United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four 
Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be 
elected, as follows 

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may 
direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and 
Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no 
Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit 
under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for 
two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same 
State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted 
for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they shall sign and 
certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the United 
States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate 


2 2 3 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all 
the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having 
the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President, if such Number be a 
Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if there be more 
than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, 
then the House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one 
of them for President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five 
highest on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse the President. 
But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, the 
Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this purpose 
shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and 
a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, 
after the Choice of the President, the Person having the greatest Number 
of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should 
remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from 
them by Ballot the Vice President. 

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the 
Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

No Person except a natural bom Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, 
at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the 
Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who 
shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen 
Years a Resident within the United States. 

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, 
Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said 
Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may 
by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, 
both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then 
act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability 
be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compen¬ 
sation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period 
for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that 
Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the 
following Oath or Affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will 
faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to 
the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the 
United States.” 

Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and 
Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when 
called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the 
Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive 
Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective 
Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for 
Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. 

2 2 4 



CONSTITUTION TEXT 


AND AMENDMENTS 


He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, 
to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and 
he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, 
shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of 
the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose 
Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be 
established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of 
such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the 
Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen 
during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall 
expire at the End of their next Session. 

Section. 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information 
of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such 
Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraor¬ 
dinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of 
Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive 
Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws 
be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United 
States. 

Section. 4. The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and 
Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE III. 

Section. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one 
supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time 
to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior 
Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated 
Times receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be 
diminished during their Continuance in Office. 

Section. 2. The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and 
Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and 
Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;—to all Cases 
affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;—to all Cases of 
admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;—to Controversies to which the United 
States shall be a Party;—to Controversies between two or more States;— 
between a State and Citizens of another State;—between Citizens of different 
States,—between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of 
different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof and foreign 
States, Citizens or Subjects. 

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, 
and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have 
original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme 
Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such 
Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. 


2 2 5 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; 
and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have 
been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall 
be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. 

Section. 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying 
War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and 
Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony 
of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court. 

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, 
but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture 
except during the Life of the Person attainted. 

ARTICLE. IV. 

Section. 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public 
Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the 
Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, 
Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. 

Section. 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges 
and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. 

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who 
shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of 
the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to 
be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime. 

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, 
escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation 
therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered 
up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. 

Section. 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; 
but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any 
other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, 
or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States 
concerned as well as of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules 
and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the 
United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to 
Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 

Section. 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union 
a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against 
Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when 
the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence. 

ARTICLE. V. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the 
Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a 
Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid 
to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the 



CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three 
fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be 
proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be 
made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any 
Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first 
Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of it’s equal 
Suffrage in the Senate. 


ARTICLE. VI. 

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption 
of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this 
Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made 
in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under 
the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and 
the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the 
Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. 

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of 
the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of 
the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or 
Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be 
required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United 
States. 


ARTICLE. VII. 

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for 
the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the 
Same. 


Done in Convention by the Unan¬ 
imous Consent of the States pres¬ 
ent the Seventeenth Day of Sep¬ 
tember in the Year of our Lord 
one thousand seven hundred and 
Eighty seven and of the Inde- 
pendance of the United States of 
America the Twelfth. In Witness 
whereof We have hereunto sub¬ 
scribed our Names. 


AMENDMENT I 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or 
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 


2 2 7 




THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


AMENDMENT II 

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the 
right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 


AMENDMENT III 

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the 
consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed 
by law. 


AMENDMENT IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and 
effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, 
and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or 
affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the 
persons or things to be seized. 


AMENDMENT V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous 
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in 
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual 
service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for 
the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be 
compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be 
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 
private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. 

AMENDMENT VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy 
and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the 
crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 
ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the 
accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have 
compulsory process for obtaining Witnesses in his favor, and to have the 
assistance of counsel for his defence. 

AMENDMENT VII 

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried 
by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, 
than according to the rules of the common law. 

AMENDMENT VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 


2 2 8 



CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


AMENDMENT IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be 
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 


AMENDMENT X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
people. 


AMENDMENT XI 

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend 
to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the 
United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any 
Foreign State. 


AMENDMENT XII 

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for 
President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots 
the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for 
as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for 
as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the 
number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit 
sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the 
President of the Senate;—The President of the Senate shall, in the presence 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the 
votes shall then be counted;—The person having the greatest number of 
votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of 
the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such 
majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding 
three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives 
shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the 
President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each 
state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member 
or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states 
shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not 
choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, 
before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall 
act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability 
of the President.—The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice- 
President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the 
whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then 
from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice- 
President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole 
number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary 
to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of 
President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 


2 2 9 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


AMENDMENT XIII 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punish¬ 
ment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist 
within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri¬ 
ate legislation. 


AMENDMENT XIV 

Section 1. All persons bom or naturalized in the United States, and 
subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the 
State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which 
shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; 
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without 
due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal 
protection of the laws. 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of 
persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to 
vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice 
President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive 
and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is 
denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years 
of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for 
participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein 
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens 
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 
such State. 

Section 3- No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or 
elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, 
under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an 
oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a 
member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 
State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the 
enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, 
remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized 
by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or 
obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such 
debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate 
legislation, the provisions of this article. 


2 3 0 



CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


AMENDMENT XV 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be 
denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 


AMENDMENT XVI 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from 
whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, 
and without regard to any census or enumeration. 

AMENDMENT XVII 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from 
each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator 
shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications 
requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, 
the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the 
executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the 
vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or 
term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the 
Constitution. 


AMENDMENT XVIII 

Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufac¬ 
ture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation 
thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all 
territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby 
prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent 
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the 
several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the 
date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 

AMENDMENT XIX 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 


2 3 l 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


AMENDMENT XX 

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at 
noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Represen¬ 
tatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms 
would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their 
successors shall then begin. 

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and 
such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall 
by law appoint a different day. 

Section 3- If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the 
President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall 
become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time 
fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed 
to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a 
President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the 
case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have 
qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which 
one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly 
until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. 

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of 
any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a 
President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and 
for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may 
choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved 
upon them. 

Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October 
following the ratification of this article. 

Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three- 
fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its 
submission. 


AMENDMENT XXI 

Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States is hereby repealed. 

Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or 
possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating 
liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. 

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several 
States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of 
the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 

AMENDMENT XXII 

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more 
than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as 
President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person 


2 3 2 



CONSTITUTION TEXT AND AMENDMENTS 


was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more 
than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of 
President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not 
prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as 
President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from 
holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder 
of such term. 

Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been 
ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three- 
fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its 
submission to the States by the Congress. 

AMENDMENT XXIII 

Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United 
States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: 

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole 
number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District 
would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least 
populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, 
but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President 
and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet 
in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of 
amendment. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 


AMENDMENT XXIV 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary 
or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or 
Vice President, or for Senator or Representatives in Congress, shall not be 
denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to 
pay any poll tax or other tax. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 


AMENDMENT XXV 

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his 
death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President 

Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, 
the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon 
confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. 

Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore 
of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written 
declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his 
office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, 
such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting 
President. 


2 3 3 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the 
principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as 
Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the 
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written 
declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties 
of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and 
duties of the office as Acting President. 

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of 
the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written 
declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of 
his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal 
officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may 
by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of 
the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written 
declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties 
of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within 
forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within 
twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress 
is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to 
assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is 
unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President 
shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the 
President shall resume the powers and duties of his office. 

AMENDMENT XXVI 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen 
years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United 
States or by any State on account of age. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by 
appropriate legislation. 


2 3 4 



HISTORY OF THE DOCUMENT 


T he veneration of the American people for the parchment, or 
engrossed, copies of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the 
Constitution (1787), and the Bill of Rights (1789) has been re¬ 
flected in the painstaking care bestowed on them. After long odysseys, 
part of which they shared, today they are enshrined in Exhibition Hall 
of the National Archives Building. The Constitution and Bill of Rights, 
which were not regularly exhibited to the public until 1924 and 1952 
respectively, are in far better physical condition than the Declaration, 
which has been displayed continuously since 1841 except for one 
period of three decades. 

On September 20, 1787, Maj. William Jackson, secretary of the 
Constitutional Convention, delivered the engrossed copy of the Con¬ 
stitution to his counterpart in the Continental Congress, Charles 
Thomson, who already was responsible for safeguarding the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. He likely stored the two documents first in New 
York’s City Hall, where Congress was meeting, and then between 
October 1788 and April 1789 at the two-room office on the southeast 
comer of Broad and Pearl Streets that Secretary for Foreign Affairs 
John Jay vacated for temporary use by the Continental Congress while 
City Hall (which became Federal Hall) was being renovated. 

Although the new government was formally launched when 
George Washington was inaugurated on the balcony of Federal Hall 
on April 30, 1789, Confederation officers maintained continuity until 
the executive branch could be organized, and Thomson probably 
moved into the hall with the new Congress. When he resigned on 
July 23, at Washington’s request he turned over the Constitution and 
Declaration to Roger Alden, who had been deputy secretary of the 
Continental Congress. 

The legislation creating the Department of State (September 15, 
1789) charged it with the protection of important state papers. 
Accordingly, Acting Secretary John Jay, who was in charge until 
appointee Thomas Jefferson could return from France and take over 
early in 1790, assumed jurisdiction over the Declaration, the Constitu¬ 
tion, and within a couple of weeks the newly issued parchment copy 
of the Bill of Rights. During this period, they were undoubtedly 
stored in the department’s temporary offices on lower Broadway. 

In late 1790 the government moved to Philadelphia. Except pos¬ 
sibly for brief intervals when they may have been among the state 
papers evacuated to Trenton, N.J., during yellow-fever epidemics, the 
three documents remained there for a decade in successive State 
Department offices on Market Street, the southeast corner of Arch and 
Sixth Streets, on North Alley, and the northeast corner of Fifth and 
Chestnut Streets. 


2 3 5 



THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


In 1800 the documents were shipped by sea to the new capital, 
Washington, D.C. They were apparently kept for a couple of months 
in the department’s temporary offices in the old, or first, Treasury 
Building, just east of the White House at 15th Street and Pennsylvania 
Avenue NW., on the southern end of the site of the present Treasury 
Building; and then for a time they were kept at another temporary 
location, in one of the “Six Buildings,” between 21st and 22d Streets 
on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Likely in 1801 the department relo¬ 
cated to the War Office Building, just west of the White House at 
17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The state papers remained 
there until late in August 1814, during the War of 1812, when British 
troops invaded the capital. Shortly before they arrived, at the direction 
of Secretary of State James Monroe, the papers were packed in linen 
sacks and transported in carts to an unused gristmill belonging to an 
Edgar Patterson, on the Virginia side of the Potomac River about 2 
miles above Chain Bridge. Before long, because a nearby cannon 
factory made the site a likely military target, a State Department clerk 
borrowed wagons from farmers in the neighborhood and moved the 
papers to an empty house in Leesburg, Va., about 35 miles away. It 
was locked and the keys were given to a Reverend Littlejohn for 
safekeeping. 

Within a few weeks, after the British had departed and the threat 
had subsided, in September 1814 the documents were brought back 
to Washington and temporarily kept at a private residence on the 
south side of G Street near 18th Street NW. that the State Department 
temporarily occupied until the fire-scarred War Office Building was 
ready for reoccupancy in April 1816. 

In September 1819, the department moved the Declaration, Con¬ 
stitution, and Bill of Rights to its new headquarters at 15th Street and 
Pennsylvania Avenue NW., on the north end of the site of the present 
Treasury Building. There they remained together until 1841, when 
the Declaration was taken away and displayed to the public at the 
new Patent Office Building. 

In 1866 the Constitution and Bill of Rights were moved to premises 
the department leased on 14th Street near S Street NW. In July 1875 
they made their final move within the department, to the partially 
completed State, War and Navy Building (present Old Executive 
Office Building), at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Two 
years later, the Declaration, which had just been exhibited in Philadel¬ 
phia (1876-77) as part of the centennial celebration of indepen¬ 
dence, rejoined the Constitution and Bill of Rights in the State, War 
and Navy Building, though the Declaration continued to be displayed. 
By this time, its long exposure to sunlight, the making of various 

2 3 6 



HISTORY 


O F 


THE 


DOCUMENT 


facsimiles, handling, and greater age had faded its ink considerably. 
In contrast, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, benefiting from their 
longtime obscurity, were in relatively good condition. 

As a matter of fact, during the first century of existence of the 
parchment copy of the Constitution, it had attracted virtually no 
public attention. Only in a few instances was it even inspected. For 
example, in 1823 Secretary of State John Quincy Adams and others 
examined it during a political dispute concerning its punctuation. A 
few years later, James Madison, “Father of the Constitution” and its 
onetime custodian as Secretary of State (1801-9), expressed uncer¬ 
tainty as to its location. In 1846 a publisher used it to prepare a book 
on the Constitution. When historian J. Franklin Jameson examined 
the parchment in 1883, he found it folded in a small tin box in the 
bottom of a closet at the State, War, and Navy Building. 

In 1894, noting the deterioration in the Declaration, the State 
Department sealed it and the Constitution between two glass plates 
and locked them in a safe or steel case in the basement, apparently 
along with the Bill of Rights. There they lay, except on rare occasions, 
unobserved and in darkness for a quarter of a century. In 1921, in 
response to a presidential executive order, which reflected the find¬ 
ings of a special committee, the department, though it retained 
control of the Bill of Rights, relinquished the Constitution and 
Declaration to the Library of Congress, where they could receive 
expert care and be safely exhibited to the public. 

Librarian Herbert Putnam, personally made the transfer in a library 
mail truck, a Model T Ford. At first, he kept the documents in a safe 
in his office. In 1924, however, he put them on public display on 
the second floor of the present main building in a bronze and marble 
shrine. Placed over special moisture-absorbing cellulose paper, they 
were sealed between double panes of insulated plate glass, from 
which the air was expelled and just under which gelatin film kept 
out harmful rays of light. 

The Constitution and Declaration remained there until December 
26, 1941, just 19 days after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Packed in 
acid-free paper and rock wool in a hermetically sealed bronze 
container, they left Washington by train in a pullman compartment 
under Secret Service guard en route to the United States Bullion 
Depository, Fort Knox, Ky. They arrived there the following day and 
were placed in a vault. Taking advantage of the opportunity, 
specialists cleaned and restored the documents to the maximum 
degree. On September 29, 1944, with the approval of the Joint Chiefs 
of Staff, they were returned to the Library of Congress and on Octo¬ 
ber 1 were reexhibited. 


2 3 7 



THE CONSTITUTION AND ITS HISTORY 



In February 1924 President and Mrs. Calvin Coolidge dedicated the newly completed shrine in 
the Library of Congress that contained the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. 
Dr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, is at the left. 


In 1951, based on the results of a long study that the National 
Bureau of Standards had initiated at the request of the Librarian of 
Congress to determine the best possible protection from the atmo¬ 
sphere, insects, mold, and light, each of the six leaves of the two 
instruments were sealed in separate cases fitted with glass and special 
filters that screened out damaging light rays. The helium atmosphere 
was inert and properly humidified. 


2 3 8 



HISTORY 


O F 


THE 


DOCUMENT 


In December 1952 the two documents were transported in wooden 
boxes atop mattresses in an armored troop carrier under military 
escort to their permanent home, the National Archives Building. It 
had been completed in 1935 as the repository for official governmen¬ 
tal records, which are under the jurisdiction of the National Archives 
and Records Administration. A special hall had been designed to 
safeguard and exhibit the most famous of the nation’s documents. 
The Bill of Rights had already been shipped to the National Archives 
Building from the State, War and Navy Building in 1938; during the 
interim, it was not permanently displayed. 

Still enshrined at the National Archives Building today, along with 
thousands of other priceless national records, are the parchment 
copies of the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. The 
massive bronze doors at the Constitution Avenue entrance to the 
building lead to the circular Exhibition Hall. At its rear center stands 
a marble shrine containing the Declaration; the first and fourth, or 
signature, pages of the Constitution; and the Bill of Rights. Every 



National Archives Building, where the Constitution reposes today. 


2 3 9 












THE 


CONSTITUTION 


AND 


ITS HISTORY 


Constitution Day (September 17) the first four pages of the Constitu¬ 
tion are all displayed together in a portable exhibit case in the center 
of the rotunda. 

At other times, the second and third pages, as well as the rarely 
displayed fifth and last page of the Constitution (known as the 
“Resolution of Transmittal to the Continental Congress”), are 
safeguarded in the vault below. The fifth page, signed by Washing¬ 
ton, detailed the steps required for adoption of the new plan of 
government, including the ratification process. 

The Bill of Rights on display, which lists the first 12 proposed 
constitutional amendments, only the last 10 of which the states 
ratified, is the enrolled parchment copy of the congressional resolu¬ 
tion of September 25, 1789, engrossed by Clerk of the House William 
Lambert. Thirteen other parchment copies, differing only in such 
details as handwriting, capitalization, and lineation, were transmitted 
to the states for ratification; only a few of these have survived. 

When not exhibited, the nation’s most precious documents are 
secured in a fireproof, shockproof, bombproof vault, which is con¬ 
structed of steel and reinforced concrete and is located below the 



Each year hundreds of thousands of school children visit the National Archives to view the 
nation’s great documents. 


2 4 0 




history 


O F 


THE 


DOCUMENT 


shrine under the floor of Exhibition Hall. An electrical mechanism 
automatically lowers them into the vault and raises them back to their 
positions in the shrine. Other machinery then closes a massive lid of 
metal and concrete over the vault. These mechanisms can be ac¬ 
tivated in the event of danger, and, during a power failure, they can 
be operated manually. 

Along both sides of the bulwark charters is a “Formation of the 
Union” display. It consists of documents illustrating the evolution of 
the U.S. government from 1774 until 1791. Included are the Articles 
of Association (1774), the Articles of Confederation (1778), the Treaty 
of Paris (1783), and Washington’s inaugural address (1789). 

On each wall above the exhibit is a mural. In one, Jefferson and 
the drafting committee are presenting the Declaration to John Han¬ 
cock, President of the Continental Congress. In the other, James 
Madison, accompanied by various members of the Constitutional 
Convention, is submitting the Constitution to George Washington, the 
convention’s presiding officer. 


2 4 1 



FURTHER RESEARCH IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 


M entioning the National Archives readily evokes the image of 
the neoclassical rotunda that enshrines the Declaration of 
Independence and the Constitution of the United States. 
Less familiar are the volume and variety of the millions of documents 
preserved from the days of the First Continental Congress through 
the 20th century and entrusted to the National Archives and its 
branches. 

The bicentennial anniversaries of the Constitution and the Bill of 
Rights invite both novice and veteran scholars to examine more 
closely the records relating to the Constitution and its history. Any 
attempt to completely describe these records would fill a volume or 
more. This small space allows for only a cursory mention of the major 
sources. After examing the most frequently used records, researchers 
may decide to make more extensive investigations of the National 
Archives’ voluminous holdings. 

Many records from the Revolutionary and early federal period have 
been microfilmed to allow for easy access while preserving the 
original documents from harm. The collection most relevant to this 
volume is the Records of the Constitutional Convention. 

The Records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 (filmed as 
microfilm publication M866) consist of four parts: the official records 
of the convention, the papers of David Brearley (Brearly), the 
delegates’ credentials, and a motion in the hand of Elbridge Gerry. 

The official records are those papers that the convention directed 
its secretary, William Jackson, to turn over to its president, George 
Washington. Although Jackson burned some loose scraps of papers, 
he turned over four volumes of journals and various other papers. 
On March 16, 1796, Washington deposited these official records with 
Timothy Pickering, the secretary of state. The records remained in the 
custody of the State Department until they were transferred to the 
Library of Congress in 1922. The National Archives obtained the 
convention’s official records in June 1952, the same year it received 
the Articles of Confederation, the Declaration of Independence, and 
the Constitution from the Library of Congress. 

The proceedings and votes William Jackson recorded from May 14 
through September 17, 1787, became known as the Journal of the 
Constitutional Convention. The journal comprises the formal journal 
of the convention, the journal of proceedings of the committee of 
the whole, and two voting records. In addition to the journal, Jackson 
saved two copies of the Virginia Plan as amended by the convention; 
the first printed draft of the Constitution, annotated by Washington; 
a draft of a letter from the convention to the Continental Congress 
to accompany the Constitution; and other letters to the convention. 


2 4 2 



FURTHER RESEARCH IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 


In 1818 the Department of State received the papers of David 
Brearly, a delegate to the convention, from his estate. Though not 
considered part of the official records, these papers contain valuable 
documents relating to the convention, some of which are not among 
those collected by William Jackson. The Brearly Papers include 
population estimates of the states, copies of the Virginia Plan and the 
New Jersey Plan, Hamilton’s plan of government, the committee 
report on the Great Compromise, and two annotated printed drafts 
of the Constitution. 

The convention’s records also include transcribed copies of the 
delegates’ credentials and a motion written by Elbridge Gerry. The 
credentials provided authority and instructions from each state to its 
delegates. Gerry’s motion concerned the method of electing the 
“supreme Executive.” 

The largest body of records from the Revolutionary and early 
federal era on microfilm are the Papers of the Continental Congress , 
1774-89 (M247). The Continental Congress was not only active 
during the Revolutionary War, but it also was the governing body of 
the United States under the Articles of Confederation. Most of the 
50,000 documents are arranged in a numerical sequence of 196 items. 
Included are copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Articles 
of Confederation, the Northwest Ordinance, the Constitution, and 
other documents intrumental in forming the new government. The 
papers concern many subjects, the major ones being military and 
fiscal affairs and foreign relations. The types of documents include 
journals of proceedings, letters and reports, claims, and diplomatic 
despatches. The National Archives published a five-volume name and 
subject index to all the papers except the Journals of the Congress. 

Additional information on microfilm concerning the early foreign 
relations of the United States may be found in Domestic Letters of the 
Department of State, 1784-1861 (M40) and Foreign Letters of the 
Continental Congress and the Department of State, 1785-1790 
(M6l). The Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress (}A522) 
and records relating to Revolutionary War accounts and pensions, 
Indian affairs, the first Post Office department, and the first censuses 
are also valuable for research about the early years of the U.S. 
government. 

Since the adoption of the Constitution, questions have arisen as to 
what is and is not permissible under its provisions. For studying 
questions of constitutionality, a logical place to start is Record Group 
267, the Records of the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Among the Supreme Court records, one may trace the course of 
judicial review from the establishment of the court in 1789 through 

2 4 3 



FURTHER RESEARCH IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES 


the 20th century. The National Archives has maintained the records 
as the Court arranged them. The kinds of records include case files, 
minutes, dockets, journals, opinions, correspondence, and fiscal 
records. Case files constitute the largest volume of records, and some 
files are especially rich. However, most files contain just the basic 
documentation of each case, including petitions, orders, decrees, and 
judgments. Other possible sources for constitutional research are 
Justice Department records, congressional committee records, and the 
records of government agencies. 

The largest body of court records in the custody of the National 
Archives is that of the U.S. district and circuit courts (RG 21). The 
Judiciary Act of 1789, which established the Supreme Court, also 
divided the United States into 13 districts, each with a district court 
and judge, and then grouped the districts into circuits. A circuit court, 
consisting of a district judge and any two Supreme Court justices, was 
to convene in each district twice a year. The 11 Archives field 
branches hold the records of courts that sat within their regions. 

District courts had original jurisdiction over most federal cases. The 
circuit courts, in addition to limited original jurisdiction, heard cases 
appealed from the district courts. In 1891 the U.S. Court of Appeals 
(its records are in RG 276) took over the appellate jurisdiction, and 
in 1911 the circuit courts were abolished. 

The earliest documents in Record Group 21 date from 1685, and 
the holdings extend through the 20th century. The cases concern 
admiralty law, bankruptcy, naturalization, land grants, and criminal 
offenses. Records of the Confederacy’s district courts are also in this 
record group. 

The vast holdings of the National Archives offer countless oppor¬ 
tunities for discovering more about the origins and evolution of the 
Constitution. Those who delve into the records in the custody of the 
National Archives and Records Administration will encounter a 
veritable treasure trove of material relating to an array of subjects. It 
is hoped that the interest in the Constitution inspired by the occasion 
of its bicentennial may lead to a fruitful association between the 
National Archives and researchers in many disciplines. 


2 4 4 



SUGGESTED 


READING 


BEARD, CHARLES A. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United 
States. New York: Macmillan, 1913. 

- The Republic: Conversations on Fundamentals. New York: Viking Press, 1943. 

BOWEN, CATHERINE D. Miracle at Philadephia: The Story of the Constitutional 
Convention, May to September 1787. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966. 

FARRAND, MAX. The Fathers of the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Establishment of 
the Union. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1921. 

- The Framing of the Constitution of the United States. New Haven, Conn.: Yale 

University Press, 1913. 

-, ed. The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787. 3 vols., New Haven, 

Conn.: Yale University Press, 1911; rev. ed., 4 vols., 1937. 

HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, JOHN JAY, and JAMES MADISON. The Federalist [Papers]: A 
Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution, As Agreed Upon by 
the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787. [1788]. Available in many complete 
and abridged editions, including paperback. 

JENSEN, MERRILL. The Making of the American Constitution. Princeton, N.J.: Van 
Nostrand, 1964. 

LEVY, LEONARD WILLIAMS, ed. Essays on the Making of the Constitution. New York: 
Oxford University Press, 1969. 

McGEE, DOROTHY H. Framers of the Constitution. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1968. 

MAIN, JACKSON TURNER The Anti federalists: Critics of the Constitution, 1781-1788. 
Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1961. 

_ Political Parties Before the Constitution. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North 

Carolina Press, 1973. 

NATIONAL ARCHIVES. The Formation of the Union. Washington: National Archives 
and Records Service (Pub. No. 70-13), 1970. 

ROSSITER, CLINTON. 1787: The Grand Convention. New York: Macmillan, 1966. 

RUTLAND, ROBERTA. The Birth of the Bill of Rights, 1776-1791. Chapel Hill, N.C.: 
University of North Carolina Press, 1955. 

SZATMARY, DAVID P. Shays’ Rebellion: The Making of an Agrarian Insurrection. 

Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 1980. 

TANSILL, CHARLES, ed. Documents Illustrative of the Formation of the Union of the 
American States. 69th Congress, 1st Session, House Doc. No. 398. Washington: 
Government Printing Office, 1927. 

UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMISSION. History of the 
Formation of the Union Under the Constitution. Washington: Government Printing 
Office, 1940. 

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. The Constitution of the United States, 
As Amended Through fufy 1971. 93d Congress, 2d Session, House Doc. No. 93-215. 
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1974. 


2 4 5 







SUGGESTED REA DING 


UNITED STATES SENATE. The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis 
and Interpretation—Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the 
United States to fune 29, 1972. 92d Congress, 2d Session, Senate Doc. No. 92-82. 
Washington: Government Printing Office, 1973- 

VAN DOREN, CARL. The Great Rehearsal: The Story of the Making and Ratifying of the 
Constitution of the United States. New York: Viking Press, 1948. 

WARREN, CHARLES. The Making of the Constitution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1928. 

WHITNEY, DAVID C. Founders of Freedom in America: Lives of the Men Who Signed 
the Constitution and So Helped to Establish the United States of America. Chicago: 
J. G. Ferguson, 1965. 

WOOD, GORDON S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. Chapel 
Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1969. 


2 4 6 



ART AND PICTURE CREDITS 


The National Archives and Records Administration gratefully acknowledges the assistance of 
agencies and individuals furnishing illustrations and granting permission to reproduce them. 


5 National Archives (Hugh Talman, ca. 1979). 

10 National Archives. 

12 Drawing and engraving (1800) by William Birch & Son. Library of Congress. 

15 National Archives. 

17 Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia), May 19, 1787. Library of Congress. 

19 Engraving (undated) by an unknown artist, in Columbian Magazine (1789). Library of 
Congress. 

21 National Archives. 

23 Jefferson , detail from oil (1786) by Mather Brown, Charles Francis Adams, Lexington, 
Mass.; Adams, detail from oil (1788) by Mather Brown, Library of the Boston Athenaeum. 

24 Lee , detail from oil (1784) by Charles Willson Peale, Independence National Historical 
Park, Pa.; Henry, detail from miniature, watercolor on ivory (late 19th century), Herbert 
DuPuy Collection, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Jay, detail from oil 
(1795-96) by Raphaelle and Rembrandt Peale, after Charles Willson Peale, Maryland 
Historical Society, Baltimore; Chase, detail from oil (ca. 1773) by Charles Willson Peale, 
Independence National Historical Park. 

26 Engraving (ca. 1787) by James Trenchard, after a drawing (1778) by Charles Willson Peale, 
in Columbian Magazine (1787). Library of Congress. 

27 Drawing and engraving (ca. 1799) by William Birch & Son. Independence National 
Historical Park. 

31 Detail from drawing and engraving (ca. 1800) by William Birch & Son. Library of Congress. 

32 Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), May 11, 1787. Library of Congress. 

33 Engraving (early 19th century) by Mumford, in John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia 
(1879-81). Library Company of Philadelphia. 

34 Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia), May 30, 1787. 

36 National Archives (148-CCD-14). 

37 National Archives. 

39 National Archives. 

42 Historic Buildings Survey, National Park Service (Jack E. Boucher, 1974). 

48 Watercolor (1887) by Benjamin R. Evans, after a drawing (1833) by Gen [Alfred?] Sully. 
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

51 National Archives. 

55 National Archives. 

60 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

68 Library of Congress. 

70 Library of Congress. 

72 National Archives. 

74 Library of Congress. 

75 Library of Congress. 

77 Pennsylvania Packet (Philadelphia), September 18, 1787. Library of Congress. 

78 National Archives. 


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79 National Archives. 

80 National Archives. 

81 National Archives. 

82 National Archives. 

84 Library of Congress. 

87 Library of Congress. 

90 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

95 National Archives. 

97 Library of Congress. 

98 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

100 National Archives. 

101 Oil (late 19th century) by L. M. Cooke. Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler 
Garbisch, National Gallery of Art. 

102 Engraving (ca. 1790) by Amos Doolittle, after a drawing by Peter Lacour. I.N. Phelps Stokes 
Collection, New York Public Library. 

104 National Archives. 

106 National Archives. 

108 Library of Congress. 

110 National Archives. 

113 Library of Congress (Harris & Ewing). 

114 Library of Congress. 

121 Engraving (undated) by Henry Dawkins, after W. Tennant, in An Account of the College of 
New Jersey (1764). Library of Congress. 

123 Ink and gouache drawing (undated) by Emanuel Leutze, after Robert Fulton. The 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

124 Crayon drawing (undated) by Charles B.J. Fevret de Saint-Memin. The Baltimore Museum 
of Art: Bequest of Helen H. Bayard. 

125 Detail from oil (1787) by Charles Willson Peale. Architect of the Capitol. 

127 National Archives (l48-GW-533b). 

128 Detail from oil (prior to 1858) by Washington B. Cooper. Tennessee State Museum, 
Tennessee Historical Society (Stephen D. Cox, 1986). 

129 Reproduced from a portrait by an unknown artist in Hamilton Schuyler, St. Michael's 
Church, Trenton (1926). Trentoniana Collection, Trenton Public Library. 

132 National Archives (l48-CCD-81a). 

133 Oil (ca. 1758) by John Wollaston. Maryland Historical Society, Balitmore. 

134 Detail from oil (ca. 1807-10) by Charles Willson Peale. National Portrait Gallery, 
Smithsonian Institution. Gift of Shubrick Clymer. 

136 Detail from miniature, oil on ivory, by Eliza L Mirbel, Independence National Historical 
Park. 

138 National Archives (148-CC-7-1). 

139 Oil (1782) by Charles Willson Peale. Independence National Historical Park. 

142 Detail from pastel (ca. 1796) attributed to James Sharpies, Sr. Independence National 
Historical Park. 

144 National Archives (148-CP-157). 

147 Detail from oil (1789) by Charles Willson Peale. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 


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149 Detail from watercolor (ca. 1823) by James Barton Longacre, after John Vanderlyn. National 
Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. 

152 Lithograph (1900) by Albert Rosenthal, after his oil painting. Phillips Exeter Academy, 
Exeter, N.H. 

153 Detail from oil (ca. 1793-94) by Charles Willson Peale. Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Gift 
of Edwin H. Abbot, Jr., in memory of his brother, Philip Stanley Abbot. 

154 Detail from oil (1806) by John Trumbull. National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon 
Collection. 

158 Detail from oil (1791) by Archibald Robertson. From the collection of the Georgia 
Historical Society. 

159 National Archives (148-CP-130). 

160 Detail from oil (1760-70) by John Hesselius. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian 
Institution. 

161 Detail from oil (ca. 1814) by John Wesley Jarvis. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian 
Institution. 

163 Oil (1792) by John Trumbull. Yale University Art Gallery. 

165 Detail from pastel (ca. 1795-1800) attributed to James Sharpies, Sr. Independence National 
Historical Park. 

168 Detail from oil (undated) by John Wollaston. Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York City. 

170 Detail from oil (ca. 1810) attributed to Cephas Thompson, Julia Wickham Porter (Mrs. 
Charles W. Porter III). 

171 Detail from pastel (ca. 1795-1800) attributed to James Sharpies, Sr. Independence National 
Historical Park. 

172 Oil (1792) by Charles Willson Peale. The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History 
and Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

175 Detail from pastel (ca. 1796) by James Sharpies, Sr. Independence National Historical Park. 

177 Detail from oil (ca. 1835) by Henry Hoppner Meyer, after unidentified artist. National 
Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. 

179 National Archives (148-CP-121). 

181 Detail from oil (1901) by Albert Rosenthal, after a miniature by Robert Field. Independence 
National Historical Park. 

182 Oil (1784) by Charles Willson Peale. Independence National Historical Park. 

183 Engraving (1783) by B. B. Ellis. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. 

185 Detail from oil (ca. 1782) by Charles Willson Peale. Independence National Historical 
Park. 

187 Detail from pastel (1794) by James Sharpies, Sr. United States Supreme Court. 

190 National Archives (148-CCD-54). 

192 Detail from engraving (undated) by Cornelius Tiebout. National Portrait Gallery, Smith¬ 
sonian Institution. 

194 National Archives (148-CCD-40). 

196 Detail from oil (ca. 1796) by Robert Edge Pine. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian 
Institution. 

198 Oil on wood (1791) by John Trumbull. Yale University Art Gallery. 

200 Detail from oil (undated) by Ralph Earl. Yale University Art Gallery. Gift of Roger Sherman 
White. 

202 Detail from pastel (ca. 1798-1800) attributed to James Sharpies, Sr. Independence National 
Historical Park. 


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203 National Archives (148-CP-156). 

204 Detail from oil (undated) by Robert Edge Pine. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian 
Institution. 

208 National Archives (l48-CCD-70a). 

210 Miniature, watercolor on ivory (ca. 1795) by Jean Pierre Henri Elouis. National Museum of 
American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Catherine Walden Myer Fund. 

213 Detail from watercolor (ca. 1825) by James Barton Longacre after unidentified artist. 
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. 

238 National Archives (l48-CCD-93a). 

239 National Archives (64-NA-5674). 

240 National Archives (64-NA-5583). 


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Adams, John, 11, 23, 84, 101, 125, 129, 
137, 149, 151, 156, 172 
Adams, John Quincy, 164, 237 
Adams, Samuel, 23, 95, 149, 150 
Age of delegates, 30, 121 
Alabama, 13 
Alden, Roger, 235 
Alison, Rev. Francis, 196 
Allen, Ethan, Ira, and Levi, 13 
Alsop, Mary, 163 

Amendments, 85, 107-115; procedures 
for, 63, 66-67, 69, 83, 102-103, 115. 
See also Bill of Rights 
American Revolution. See Revolutionary 
War 

Annapolis Convention, 19-21, 126, 131, 
141, 155, 173, 180, 186, 194, 206, 209 
Antifederalists: ratification debates, 8, 
86-97 

Antislavery. See Slaves and slavery 
Apthorpe, Maria, 209 
Army. See Military affairs 
Articles of Association, 241 
Articles of Confederation: draft, 141, 

201; exhibited, 241-242, New Jersey 
plan for revision, 42-43; 
shortcomings, 9-20; signers, 119; 
source of ideas for Constitution, 52, 
54-56, 63-64; support for, 8, 88-94 
Attendance of delegates at Convention, 
29 

Bachelor delegates, 121-122 
Baldwin, Abraham: biography, 120, 
121-122, 123-124; Convention 
activities, 29, 46, 64, 123, 158 
Baldwin, Henry, 123 
Baldwin, Ruth, 123 
Balfour, Jean, 127 
Barbary States, 13 
Barlow, Joel, 123 
Barlow, Ruth Baldwin, 123 
Bartram, John, 27 
Bassett, Ann Ennals, 125 
Bassett, Richard: biography, 20, 119, 120, 
121, 122, 124-125; Convention 
activities, 29, 124 
Beach, Anne, 161 
Beach, Mary Brewster, 162 
Bedford, Col. Gunning, 125 
Bedford, Gunning Jr.: biography, 119, 
120, 122, 125-126; Convention 


activities, 29, 46, 126 
Bedford, Jane Parker, 125 
Bell, Cornelia, 188 
Bill of Rights: Convention 
postponement, 67; exhibited, 

235-240; factor in ratification, 67, 86, 
95-96, 99, 105; provisions, 103-107 
Bird, Rachel, 210 
The Black Horse (tavern), 26 
Blacks, 109-111, 113-115. See also 
Slaves and slavery 
Blackstone, Sir William, 192 
Blair, James, 127 
Blair, Jean Balfour, 127 
Blair, John: biography, 119, 120, 122, 
.127; Convention activities, 29, 127 
Blair, John (father), 127 
Blount, Mary Grainger, 128 
Blount, Thomas, 128 
Blount, William: biography, 119, 122, 
128-129; Convention activities, 29, 73, 
128 

Braddock, Gen. Edward, 205 
Brearly, David: biography, 119, 120, 121, 
122, 129-130; Convention activities, 
29, 47, 64, 130; papers, 242, 243 
Brearly, Elizabeth Higbee, 130 
Brearly, Elizabeth Mullen, 129 
Brent, Sarah, 180 

Broom, Jacob: biography, 119, 120, 131; 

Convention activities, 29, 131 
Broom, Rachel Pierce, 131 
Bruff (Mrs. Richard Bassett), 125 
Burgoyne, Gen. John, 165 
Burr, Aaron, 138-139, 156, 178, 195 
Burwell, Nathaniel, 195 
Butler, Mary Middleton, 132 
Butler, Pierce: biography, 119, 120, 122, 
132-133; Convention activities, 29, 47, 
64, 132 

Butler, Sir Richard, 132 

Cabinet, 62, 83, 84-85 
Caldwell, Margaret Allison, 171 
Gall, Rebecca, 153 
Canals, 69 
Carpenter’s Hall, 27 

Carroll, Charles (of Carrollton), 22, 133 
Carroll, Daniel: biography, 119, 120, 

122, 133-134; Convention activities, 
29, 47, 64, 73, 133-134 
Carroll, Eleanor, 133 


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Carroll, Bishop John, 133 
Census, 47, 48, 54 
Centennial celebration, 1876, 236 
Chase, Samuel, 24, 89, 178 
Citizenship, 57 
City Tavern, 26, 31, 76 
Civil rights, 6, 62, 92-93, 105-107, 109, 
111 

Clark, Abraham, 20, 22, 138 

Clay, Henry, 214 

Claypoole, David C, 52 

Clinton, George, 47, 89, 96, 167, 184, 

215 

Clymer, Elizabeth Meredith, 135 
Clymer, George: biography, 119, 122, 
134-135; Convention activities, 29, 

135 

Colleges: national university proposal, 
69-71. See also Education 
Commerce. See Economic affairs 
Commerce clause, 92-93 
Committee of detail, 52-56, 62 
Committee of style, 66-71 
Committee of the whole, 39-41, 153 
Committee on postponed matters, 

64-66 

Confederation. See Articles of 
Confederation 

Congress, U.S.: Bill of Rights, 67, 99, 

105; Convention costs, 35; first 
meeting, 101. See also House of 
Representatives, U.S.; Legislative 
branch; Senate, U.S. 

Connecticut, 20; Convention votes, 40, 
44, 45, 49; ratification, 94-95, 143, 

162, 201 

Connecticut Compromise. See Great 
Compromise 

Constitution, U.S.: bibliography, 

245-246; centennial, 1887, 114; 
engrossing and signing, 71-73, 78-82; 
exhibited, 235-241; first draft, 52-53; 
research opportunities, 242-244; 
sources, 76, 83; text, 219-234. See 
also Amendments; Bill of Rights; 
Constitutional Convention; 

Ratification 

Constitutional Convention: aims, 4-8; 
authorization, 22; costs, 35; 
proceedings, 33-76; officers, 35; 
records, 35, 73, 242-243; rules, 35-36, 
73; session characteristics, 35, 45, 57; 


state participation, 34-35. See also 
Delegates 

Constitutionality. See Supreme Court 
Continental Congress (First), 103 
Continental Congress: authorizes 
Convention, 6, 22, 35; role in 
ratification, 64, 85, 86, 99-101, 235, 
242; Convention period activities, 52, 
59; members at Philadelphia, 29, 86, 
89, 119; model for Convention 
procedures, 35, 48; records, 243; 
shortcomings of Confederation, 9-20 
Courts. See Judiciary; Supreme Court 
Cresap, Maria, 177 
Currency. See Economic affairs 
Custis, Martha Dandridge, 205 


Davie, Archibald, 136 
Davie, Sarah Jones, 136 
Davie, William Richardson: biography, 
119, 120, 122, 136-137; Convention 
activities, 29, 46, 136-137 
Dayton, Elias, 138 

Dayton, Jonathan: biography, 30, 119, 
122, 138-139; Convention activities, 
29, 138 

Dayton, Susan Williamson, 139 
Debt. See Economic affairs 
Declaration of Independence: exhibited, 
235-242; signers, 22-23, 29, 89, 95, 
119, 121, 141, 151, 183, 187, 196, 198, 
201, 210-211, 214; source of 
Constitution ideas, 103 
Delaware, 20; Convention votes, 40, 44, 
45, 49, 61; delegate instructions, 23; 
ratification, 94, 95, 126, 197 
Delegates: age, 30, 121; aims, 4-8; 
Antifederalists later, 89; attendance, 

29; economic backgrounds and 
occupations, 4, 30, 119-120, 122; 
education, 30, 120-121; instructions, 
22-23; list, 28-29; members of 
Continental Congress, 86, 89; national 
origins and family, 120, 121-122; pay, 
23, 34-35, 165-166; political 
experience, 29-30, 32-33, 119, 120, 
122; prominent omissions, 22-23; 
signature ceremony, 73, 76; work and 
recreation in Philadelphia, 25-28, 
56-57, 76 

Democracy, 3-4, 7, 8, 89 


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Dickinson, John: Annapolis Convention, 
20, 141; biography, 119, 120, 139-141, 
210; Convention activities and 
leadership, 29, 31, 46, 64, 73, 141, 196 
Dickinson, Mary Cadwalader, 139 
Dickinson, Mary Norris, 139 
Dickinson, Samuel, 139 
Dinwiddie, Robert, 213 
District of Columbia, 113, 134 
“Due process” clause. See Fourteenth 
amendment 
Dunlap, John, 52, 86 
Dunlap & Claypoole, 52, 70, 86 
Dunmore, Lord, 194 

Economic affairs, class and occupations 
of delegates, 4-8, 119-120; factors in 
ratification, 88-89, 91, 92-94; sanctity 
of contracts, 69; shortcomings of 
Confederation, 10-11, 14-18, 20. See 
also Taxation 

Education of delegates, 30, 120-121 
Eighteenth amendment, 112 
Eighth amendment, 105 
Eilbeck, Anne, 179 
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 115 
Electoral college, 65 
Eleventh amendment, 107-109 
Ellsworth, Abigail Wolcott, 142 
Ellsworth, David, 142 
Ellsworth, Jemima, 142 
Ellsworth, Oliver: biography, 120, 122, 
142-143; Convention activities, 29, 30, 
46, 52, 60, 142-143 
Emancipation Proclamation, 109 
Ennals, Ann, 125 
Executive branch. See Cabinet; 
Presidency 

Export taxes. See Import and export 
taxes 

Fairfax, Lord, 205 

Family life of delegates, 22, 26-28, 
121-122 

Federal Convention. See Constitutional 
Convention 

Federal Hall, 101-102, 235 
Federalism, 40, 88, 178 
The Federalist, 96, 98, 155, 173 
Federalists: ratification debates, 86-97 
Fenwick, Charlotte, 189 


Few, Catherine Nicholson, 145 
Few, William: biography, 120, 121, 122, 
144-145; Convention activities, 29, 
144-145 

Fifteenth amendment, 111 
Fifth amendment, 105-106 
Finance. See Economic affairs 
First amendment, 105 
Fitzsimons, Catherine Meade, 145 
Fitzsimons, Thomas: biography, 119, 

120, 121, 122, 145-146; Convention 
activities, 29, 145-146 
Florida, 13 

Foreign affairs: constitutional provisions, 
92, 93-94; records, 243; shortcomings 
of Confederation, 7, 11-14 
Fourteenth amendment, 109-111 
Fourth amendment, 105 
France, 12 

Franchise. See Voting rights 
Franklin, Benjamin: age, 30, 121; 
biography, 119, 120, 122, 147-149, 
184; Convention attendance and 
leadership, 29, 30, 45, 149; political 
experience and views, 29, 69, 71-73, 
89, 119; relation to other delegates, 
27, 140, 208-209; representation 
compromise, 45, 46; “rising sun” 
remark, 76 
Franklin, James, 147 
Franklin, state of, 13 
French, Susanna, 168 
Founding Fathers. See Delegates 


Gage, Gen. Thomas, 162 
Gates, Gen. Horatio, 182 
“General welfare” clause, 83 
The George (tavern), 26 
Georgia, 13, 20; Convention votes, 44, 
45, 49; ratification, 89, 94, 145 
Gerry, Ann Thompson, 150 
Gerry, Elbridge: biography, 119, 122, 

149- 151, 204; Convention attendance 
and leadership, 26, 29, 30, 46, 57, 

150- 151; Declaration of 
Independence, 29, 119; objections 
and antifederalism, 67, 73, 89, 95, 
150-151; papers, 242, 243 

Gilman, Nicholas: biography, 119, 120, 
121-122, 152; Convention activities, 
29, 34, 64, 152, 165-166 


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Girard, Stephen, 159-160 
Gladstone, William, 85 
Gorham, Nathaniel: biography, 119, 120, 
122, 153-154; Convention activities 
and leadership, 29, 30, 40, 52, 153; 
ratification, 95, 153; representation 
compromise, 46, 73 
Gorham, Rebecca Call, 153 
Grainger, Mary, 128 
Gray, Hannah, 212 
Great Britain, 11-14, 18, 93-94 
Great (or Connecticut) Compromise, 
45-50, 51, 58, 123, 126, 137, 141, 142, 
150, 162, 201, 209, 243 
Greene, Nathanael, 136, 189, 199 
Grimke, Elizabeth, 198 

Hamilton, Alexander: Annapolis 
Convention, 20, 155; biography, 120, 
121, 122, 154-156; Convention 
attendance and status, 23, 29, 35, 47, 
73; Convention leadership, 9, 30, 45, 
66; The Federalist and ratification, 

89, 96-99, 155, 173; journal, 35; plan 
of government, 43-44, 243; political 
associates and opponents, 124, 134, 
138, 143, 146, 163, 172, 173, 197, 207 
Hamilton, Elizabeth Schuyler, 155 
Hancock, John, 23, 95, 150, 241 
Harrison, Benjamin, 89 
Hartwell, Elizabeth, 200 
Henry, Patrick, 7, 22, 24, 89, 92, 96, 170, 
173 

Higbee, Elizabeth, 130 
House of Representatives, U.S.: 
characteristics and powers, 53, 58, 62, 
66, 73, 110; delegates who served in, 
122 

Houston, Archibald, 157 
Houston, Jane, 157 
Houston, Margaret, 157 
Houston, William G: biography, 20, 121, 
157; Convention activities, 29, 47, 157 
Houstoun, Sir Patrick, 158 
Houstoun, William, 29, 119, 120, 158 
Hutchinson, Thomas, 209 

Illinois, 112 

Impeachment, 53, 56, 63, 64 
Import and export taxes, 54, 58, 59, 
61-62, 71, 93 

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Income taxes, 111 
Indian Queen Tavern, 26, 48, 49 
Indians, 9, 11, 13-14, 89, 110, 128, 135, 
154, 168, 205 

Ingersoll, Elizabeth Pettit, 159 
Ingersoll, Jared Jr., 29, 120, 159-160 
Ingersoll, Jared Sr., 159, 162 
Interpretation of Constitution. See 
Supreme Court 
Iredell, James, 212 


Jackson, Andrew, 174 
Jackson, William, 35-37, 51, 71, 72, 85, 
235, 242-243 
Jameson, J. Franklin, 237 
Jay, John: diplomatic posts, 13, 149; 
Federalist leadership, 24, 89, 96, 155, 
173; political posts, 184, 199, 235 
Jefferson, Thomas, 241; and delegates, 
23, 29, 84; diplomatic posts, 184, 

235; political associates and 
opponents, 124, 146, 152, 156, 166, 
173, 178, 181, 191, 204, 207, 213, 214 
Jenifer, Daniel of St. Thomas: biography, 
119, 120, 121-122, 160-161; 
Convention activities, 29, 161 
Johnson, Anne Beach, 161 
Johnson, Mary Brewster Beach, 162 
Johnson, Samuel, 161 
Johnson, William Samuel: biography, 
120, 121, 122, 161-162; Convention 
activities, 29, 30, 66, 162 
Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S., 237 
Jones, Allen, 136 
Jones, Sarah, 136 

Judicial review, 84. See also Supreme 
Court 

Judiciary: characteristics and powers, 38, 
40, 50, 53, 56, 62-63, 107-109, 244; 
delegates who served on, 122. See 
also Supreme Court 
Justice Department, U.S., 244 


Kennedy, John F., 115 
King, Mary Alsop, 163 
King, Rufus: biography, 119, 122, 
163-164; Convention activities and 
leadership, 29, 30, 64, 66, 163; 
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compromise, 46, 47, 73; sanctity of 
contracts, 69 

Lafayette, Marquis de, 138, 139, 155, 171, 
181 

Lambert, William, 240 
“Lame duck” amendment, 112 
Langdon, Elizabeth Sherburne, 165 
Langdon, John: biography, 119, 122, 
165-166; Convention activities, 29, 34, 
165-166 

Lansing, Cornelia Ray, 166 
Lansing, Gerrit Jacob, 166 
Lansing, Jannetje, 166 
Lansing, John Jr.: biography, 166-167; 
Convention activities, 29, 43, 44, 47, 
167, 215; journal, 35; objections and 
antifederalism, 89, 99, 167 
Laurens, Henry, 22 
Laurens, Mary Eleanor, 190 
Lawson, Peter, 124 
Lawyers, 30 
Leach, Mary, 202 
Lee, Charles, 181 

Lee, Richard Henry, 22, 24, 89, 90, 170, 
173, 210 

Legislative branch: characteristics and 
powers, 38-40, 50, 53-54, 56, 57, 62, 
83; representation formula, 41-50, 57. 
See also Congress, U.S.; Great 
Compromise 

L’Enfant, Pierre Charles, 186 
Letters From the Federal Farmer to the 
Republican (Lee), 89, 90 
Letters ... on the Federal Constitution 
(Randolph), 195 

Letters of a Landholder (Ellsworth), 143 
Lewis, Ann, 213 

Library Company of Philadelphia, 27 
Library of Congress, 237-238, 242 
Lincoln, Abraham, 109 
Littlejohn, Reverend, 236 
Livingston, Robert R., 184 
Livingston, Susanna French, 168 
Livingston, William: biography, 120, 122, 
168-169; Convention activities, 29, 31, 
169; political associates and 
experience, 119, 155, 215 
Locke, John, 83 

McClurg, Elizabeth Seldon, 170 


McClurg, James, 29, 119, 120, 170 
McHenry, James: biography, 120, 122, 
171-172; Convention activities, 29, 
171; journal, 35, 171 

McHenry, Margaret Allison Caldwell, 171 
McKean, Thomas, 141, 197 
McLean, John, 86 
Madison, Dolley Payne Todd, 173 
Madison, James: admission of new 
states, 63; Bill of Rights, 105; 
biography, 30, 120, 121, 122, 172-174, 
237; Convention attendance and 
leadership, 29, 30, 34, 40, 57, 64, 66, 
173, 211, 241; defects of 
Confederation, 9, 20, 45, 173; election 
of President, 63-64; The Federalist 
and ratification, 89, 96, 98, 105, 155, 
173; internal improvements, 71; 
journal, 35, 173; national university, 
69-71; political associates and 
opponents, 124, 125, 132, 137, 141, 
151, 156, 163, 170; ratification 
requirements, 63; representation 
compromises, 46, 47, 49, 50, 57; 
Virginia Plan, 38, 41, 44 
Marshall, John, 84, 96, 151, 214 
Martin, Alexander, 29, 119, 121-122, 
175-176 

Martin, Hugh, 175 
Martin, Jane, 175 

Martin, Luther: biography, 120, 122, 
177-178; Convention activities and 
leadership, 29, 31, 44-45, 46, 59, 178; 
objections and antifederalism, 89, 178 
Martin, Maria Cresap, 177 
Maryland, 20; Convention votes, 44, 45, 
49; ratification, 95, 96, 134, 171, 178 
Mason, Ann Thomson, 179 
Mason, Anne Eilbeck, 179 
Mason, George: biography, 119, 121, 
179-180; Convention activities and 
leadership, 29, 30, 46, 59, 61, 63, 180; 
objections to Constitution, 67, 68, 73, 
89, 96, 173, 180 
Mason, George (father), 179 
Mason, Sarah Brent, 180 
Massachusetts, 20; Convention votes, 40, 
44, 45, 49; economic affairs, 16, 22; 
ratification, 91, 95-96, 150, 153, 203 
Meade, Catherine, 145 
Meade, George, 145 
Meade, Robert, 145 


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Mercer, Ann, 181 

Mercer, John (father of John Francis 
Mercer), 181 

Mercer, John (uncle of George Mason), 
179 

Mercer, John Francis: biography, 120, 

122, 181; Convention activities, 29, 89, 
178, 181 

Mercer, Sophia Sprigg, 181 

Meredith, Elizabeth, 134 

Middleton, Mary, 132 

Middleton, Sarah, 193 

Mifflin, Sarah Morris, 182 

Mifflin, Thomas: biography, 119, 120, 

122, 182-183; Convention activities, 

28, 29, 31, 85, 183 

Military affairs: constitutional powers, 

92, 93-94; opposition to standing 
army, 8; shortcomings of 
Confederation, 13-14; state militias, 

59; records, 243. See also 
Revolutionary War 
Ministers, 120 
Mississippi, 13 
Mississippi River, 13, 14, 93 
Moland,John, 139 

Monetary policy. See Economic affairs 
Money bills, origination of, 46, 53, 58, 

64, 66 

Montesquieu, Baron Charles D., 83 
Monroe, James, 89, 96, 164, 214, 236 
Morris, Anne Cary Randolph, 185 
Morris, Gouvemeur: admission of new 
states, 63; biography, 119, 120, 122, 
183-185, 187; borrowing power, 58; 
Convention attendance and 
leadership, 29, 31, 56, 64, 66, 184, 

211; representation compromises, 46, 
47, 48, 49; signing by state, 71-73; 
speeches, 173, 184 
Morris, Lewis, 183, 184 
Morris, Mary White, 185 
Morris, Robert: associates, 184, 211; 
biography, 119, 120, 122, 135, 146, 
185-187; Convention activities and 
leadership, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 33, 85, 
186; Declaration of Independence, 29, 
119, 186 

Morris, Sarah, 182 

Mount Vernon Conference, 19-20, 161, 
173, 180, 206 
Mullen, Elizabeth, 129 

2 5 6 


National Archives Building, 5, 8, 235, 
239-241; research opportunities, 
242-244 

National Bureau of Standards, 238 
National origins of delegates, 120 
Nationalism, 38, 40, 44, 46, 88 
Navigation acts. See Import and export 
taxes 

Nelson, Thomas Jr., 22 
New Hampshire, 13, 20, 22; Convention 
participation, 8, 23, 34-35; ratification, 
96, 99, 152 

New Jersey, 20; Convention votes, 44, 

45, 49, 61; ratification, 94, 130, 169, 
188. See also New Jersey Plan 
New Jersey Plan, 38-44, 53, 130, 169, 
188, 201, 243 
New Orleans, La., 13 
New York, 13, 20; constitution, 52, 54; 
Convention participation and votes, 8, 
23, 40, 44, 45, 47, 73; ratification, 89, 
91, 96-99, 155, 167, 215 
Newspapers: reports of Convention and 
ratification, 32, 34, 77, 85-87, 96-98 
Nicholas, Elizabeth, 194 
Nicholson, Catherine, 145 
Nineteenth amendment, 112 
Ninth amendment, 106 
Norris, Mary, 139 

North Carolina, 13, 20; Convention 
votes, 40, 44, 45, 49; ratification, 99, 
104, 105, 137, 202, 209 
Northwest Ordinance, 59, 103, 243 

Occupations of delegates, 4, 30, 

119-120 
Ohio, 13 

Ohio Company, 179 
Ordinances of 1784, 1785, 11 

Paine, Thomas, 186 
Parker, Jane B., 125 
Parties, political, 109 
Paterson, Cornelia Bell, 188 
Paterson, Euphemia White, 188 
Paterson, William: biography, 119, 120, 
121, 122, 187-188; Convention 
activities, 29, 46, 60, 130; journal, 35, 
188; New Jersey Plan, 41, 42, 43, 188 
Patowmack Company, 20, 133 
Patterson, Edgar, 236 



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Peale, Charles Willson, 28 
Peale’s Museum, 27 
Pendleton, Edmund, 96, 214 
Penn, William, 25 
Pennsylvania, 20; Convention 
participation and votes, 23, 40, 44, 45, 
49, 6l; ratification, 91, 94-95, 209 
Pennsylvania State House, 26, 34, 42, 85 
Pettit, Elizabeth, 159 
Phelps, Oliver, 154 
Philadelphia, Pa., 12, 25-28 
Pickering, Timothy, 242 
Pierce, Charlotte Fenwick, 189 
Pierce, Rachel, 131 

Pierce, William Leigh: biography, 119, 
122, 189; Convention activities, 29, 
189; journal, 35, 189 
Pinckney, Charles; biography, 120, 122, 
190-191; Convention attendance and 
leadership, 29, 31, 69-71, 190; 
office-holding requirements, 57; plan 
of government, 40, 52-53; 
representation, 43, 49 
Pinckney, Col. Charles, 190 
Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth: 
biography, 119, 120, 121, 122, 151, 
164, 190, 192-193; Convention 
activities, 29, 31, 47, 193 
Pinckney, Mary Eleanor Laurens, 190 
Pinckney, Mary Stead, 193 
Pinckney, Sarah Middleton, 193 
Pinckney, William, 178 
Pitt, William, 85 
Poll taxes, 111, 113-115 
Prescott, Rebecca, 200 
Presidency: characteristics and powers, 
38, 40, 41, 50-54, 62, 64-66, 69, 85, 
109, 112, 115; delegates nominated 
for, 122; first election, 99-101 
Printing of Constitution, 35, 52, 67, 69, 
71, 85. See also Newspapers 
Prohibition, 112 

Property qualifications, 6, 57, 123 
Providence Plantations, 99 
Pulaski, Casimir, 136 
Putnam, Herbert, 237 


Randolph, Anne Cary, 185 
Randolph, Ariana Jenings, 194 
Randolph, Edmund: biography, 20, 119, 
120, 122, 194-195; Convention 


attendance and leadership, 29, 30, 34, 
46, 49, 53, 61; ratification debates, 67, 
71, 73, 89, 96, 195; Virginia Plan, 38, 
40, 43, 44, 194 

Randolph, Elizabeth Nicholas, 194 
Randolph, John, 194 
Randolph, Peyton, 194 
Ratification process: debates, 67, 86-97; 

requirements, 7, 56, 63 
Ray, Cornelia, 166 
Read, Deborah, 147 
Read, George: biography, 20, 119, 120, 
122, 196-197; Convention activities, 
29, 73, 144, 197 
Read, Gertrude Ross Till, 196 
Read, Joseph, 125 
Reconstruction period, 109-111 
Reed, Joseph, 159 

Religious affiliation of delegates, 122 
Religious freedom, 6, 57, 105 
Representation. See Legislative branch 
Republicanism, 4, 150 
Revolutionary War: debt assumption, 58, 
93-94; records, 243; state militias, 59 
Revenue. See Money bills; Taxation 
Rhode Island, 16, 20; Convention 
nonparticipation, 6, 8, 22, 34; 
ratification, 99 
Richardson, William, 136 
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 112 
Ross, George, 196 
Rush, Benjamin, 89, 171 
Rutledge, Edward, 198 
Rutledge, Elizabeth Grimke, 198 
Rutledge, John: biography, 119, 120, 

122, 198-199; Convention activities 
and leadership, 29, 31, 46, 47, 52, 54, 
199 


Schuyler, Elizabeth, 155 
Schuyler, Gen. Philip, 166 
Scientists, 120 
Second amendment, 105 
Secrecy, 36, 92, 177 
Secret Proceedings... of the 
Convention (Yates), 216 
Secret Service, U.S., 237 
Seldon, Elizabeth, 170 
Senate, U.S.: characteristics and powers, 
53, 64-66, 111-112; delegates who 
served in, 122 


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Seventeenth amendment, 111-112 
Seventh amendment, 106 
Shallus, Jacob, 71,73 
Shays, Daniel, 16 
Shays’ Rebellion, 8, 16-18 
Sherburne, Elizabeth, 165 
Sherman, Elizabeth Hartwell, 200 
Sherman, Rebecca Prescott, 200 
Sherman, Roger: admission of new 
states, 63; Bill of Rights, 67; 
biography, 119, 120, 121, 122, 
200-201; Convention attendance and 
leadership, 29, 30, 45, 64, 201; 
Declaration of Independence, 29, 119, 
201; election of president, 66; New 
Jersey Plan, 41, 42; representation, 46, 
47,67 

Sixteenth amendment, 111 
Sixth amendment, 105 
Slaves and slavery: Convention debates, 
4, 7, 8, 59, 67; emancipation, 109, 

111; extradition of fugitives, 61, 

63; owned by delegates, 30, 119-120, 
132, 137; representation-taxation 
issue, 46, 47-49, 61, 142, 166, 169, 
178; slave trade, 54, 59-62, 143, 193 
Society of the Cincinnati, 28 
South Carolina, 20; Convention votes, 

40, 44, 45, 49, 73; ratification, 96, 132, 
190, 193 

Sovereignty, 41-42, 69 
Spain, 13, 14, 89, 93 
Spaight, Mary Leach, 202 
Spaight, Richard Dobbs Sr.: biography, 
120, 121, 122, 202-203; Convention 
activities, 29, 202 
Sprigg, Sophia, 181 
Stanly, John, 203 
Stark, Gen. John, 165 
State Department, U.S., 235-239, 

242-243 

States: admission of new, 11, 40, 49, 59, 
63, 83; constitutional powers and 
limitations, 6, 54-56, 58-59, 63, 
106-109; constitutions as source of 
ideas, 103; delegate participation, 
34-35; representation issue, 38, 

41-50; Revolutionary War, 18, 58; 
shortcomings of Confederation, 9-19 
Stead, Mary, 193 
Stockton, Richard, 187 
Stone, Thomas, 22 

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Strong, Caleb: biography, 95, 119, 122, 
203-204; Convention activities, 29, 

203 

Strong, Sarah, 204 
Suffrage. See Voting rights 
Supreme Court, U.S.: characteristics and 
powers, 53, 56, 62, 63, 64, 83, 84; 
constitutional interpretation, 62-63, 

84, 107, 111, 115; delegates who 
served on, 122; records, 243-244 
Sweeney, George Wythe, 214 

Taliaferro, Elizabeth, 213 
Talleyrand, 151 

Tariffs. See Import and export taxes 
Taxation: power to levy, 8, 42-43, 53, 54; 
shortcomings of Confederation, 9; 

16th amendment, 111; slavery issues, 
47, 48, 59-62. See also Import and 
export taxes 

Tenth amendment, 106-107 
Third amendment, 105 
Thirteenth amendment, 109 
Thompson, Ann, 150 
Thomson, Charles, 85, 235 
Till, Gertrude Ross, 196 
Todd, Dolley Payne, 173 
Trade. See Economic affairs 
Treaty of Paris, 9, 12, 13, 19, 149, 180, 

241 

Trenton Iron Works, 28 
Truman, Harry S., 113 
Twelfth amendment, 109 
Twentieth amendment, 112-113 
Twenty-fifth amendment, 115 
Twenty-first amendment, 112 
Twenty-fourth amendment, 111, 

113-115 

Twenty-second amendment, 85, 112-113 
Twenty-sixth amendment, 115 
Twenty-third amendment, 113 

Van Ness, Jannetje, 215 
Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 188 
Vergennes, Comte de, 12 
Vermont, 13 

Veto power, 40, 41, 54, 62, 67 
Vice Presidency: characteristics and 
powers, 65, 109, 112-113, 115; 
delegates nominated for, 122 
Virginia, 20; Convention leadership, 34, 



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38; Convention votes, 40, 44, 45, 49, 
61; ratification, 91, 96-97, 99, 127, 

173, 195, 214. See also Virginia Plan 
Virginia Plan, 38-44, 52, 173, 177-178, 

194, 242, 243 

Voting rights, 6, 56, 65, 111-115 

Walton, George, 22, 135 
War of 1812, 236 

War of Independence. See Revolutionary 
War 

Washington, George: Bill of Rights, 105; 
biography, 120, 122, 204-207; 
Convention leadership, 29, 30, 35, 40, 
55, 73, 74, 206, 241, 242; military and 
political associates and appointments, 
126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 133-134, 155, 
156, 160, 170, 171, 182, 184, 186, 194, 

195, 199, 204, 212; presidential 
election and inaugural, 30, 101-102, 
105, 206-207, 235, 241; ratification, 

63, 65, 89, 96; reception in 
Philadelphia, 26, 28; representation, 
73; shortcomings of Confederation, 9, 
14, 20; transmittal letter, 85, 94, 240 

Washington, Lawrence, 204-205 
Washington, Martha Dandridge Custis, 
205 

Webster, Daniel, 178 
West Indies, 11, 14, 16 
White, Euphemia, 188 
White, Mary, 185 

Williamson, Hugh: biography, 120, 121, 
122, 176, 208-210; Convention 
activities, 29, 31, 45, 47, 62, 64 
Williamson, Maria Apthorpe, 209 


Williamson, Susan, 139 
Willing, Thomas and Charles, 185 
Wilson, Hannah Gray, 212 
Wilson, James: authority of Convention, 
43; biography, 119, 120, 121, 122, 132, 
210-212; Convention attendance and 
leadership, 29, 31, 52, 57, 211; 
Declaration of Independence 29, 119, 
210-211; election of President, 63-64; 
ratification requirements, 63; 
representation compromise, 46, 49; 
speeches, 71, 173 
Wilson, Rachel Bird, 210 
Wilson, Woodrow, 115 
Wirt, William, 178 
Wolcott, Abigail, 142 
Women, 112-113 
World War II, 237 
Wythe, Ann Lewis, 213 
Wythe, Elizabeth Taliaferro, 213 
Wythe, George: biography, 119, 120, 

121, 127, 213-214; Convention 
activities, 29, 30, 96, 214; Declaration 
of Independence, 29, 119, 214 
Wythe, Margaret, 213 
Wythe, Thomas (Jr.), 213 
Wythe, Thomas (Sr.), 213 

Yates, Jannetje Van Ness, 215 
Yates, Joseph, 215 
Yates, Maria, 215 

Yates, Robert: biography, 119, 215-216; 
Convention attendance, 29, 47, 167; 
journal, 35, 216; objections and 
antifederalism, 44, 89, 99, 215; 
representation compromise, 46, 47 


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